What hurts the most
by kath-lee15
Summary: Everything is perfect for the Halliwell who are enjoying their retirement until a demon comes to town, but what's his history with the sisters and which secrets from their past will be revealed.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue 

The elders were having their daily meeting when one of theirs came running in. "we have a problem".

-What's going on?

-"Darius", he hesitated, "he's alive and about to take control of the underworld"

-"that can be, he's supposed to be dead, we haven't heard anything about him in over five years. If it were true we would have heard something sooner." One of the elders responded.

-"I assure you that it's true, a whitelighter came to me and positively identified him" he the continued on a more sombre tone: "He killed his charged, which makes me believe that maybe the 4 other witches that were killed in the last few days were also his victims"

-"If he is back, and killing witches, it can only mean one thing"

-"He wants more powers" One of the other elders finished for him.

-"We need to do something before he accumulates too much powers and becomes unstoppable."

-"We need the Charmed Ones", the leader said, "they're the only one strong enough to take him on"

-The elders all contemplated this option, neither of them wanted to be the one to ask the girls to come out of retirement.

-Suddenly, one of the Elder spoke: "It won't be enough. Even if we do convince them to fight him, there not strong enough, particularly against him, he knows them too well. He will see them coming from afar and kill them before they have a chance to react".

-The rest of the group, remained silent, thinking about what had just been said.

-"They are going to need help on that one. We can't just blindly send them against him that would be suicide" argued one elder.

-"Well we can't tell them the truth about him either" argued another, while all the others look at their leader.

Finally, the elder spoke: "We have to. We need her, they need her, she's the only one that can tell them what they need to know and help to vanquish him, she's the only one to have ever escaped him. There is no other way"

-"She will never do it, not after everything that happened", argued one elder.

-Another continued saying : "There is no way she is going to help us, if there is one thing that she hates more than us, its them"

-"We don't have a choice. Maybe if they were the one asking for her help instead of us the chances of her saying no would be smaller" One of the other claimed.

-"You have got to be kidding she hates them it would only make matter worst, and by the way, have any of you even thought about how we are going to get them there in the first place?"

-The leader then spoke again: "We need to tell them the truth, that will get them there. About her, I truly believe that when facing the possible consequences of her refusal, she is going to have no other choice but to help them, to help us"

-"You know that they are not going to take this well right, they are going to be very angry", another noted.

-The leader answered again: "I know, but there is no other way. I just hope that they can get over their hatred for us long enough to do this".

-He contemplated what he had just decided for a couple seconds then gave his orders: "Call the whitelighters and tell them to get the three of them as well as Billy here as fast as possible"

-"Sir, why the girl, this has nothing to do with her" A young elder spoke. The elder responded: "Because Paige is going to need her through his, as well as Piper and Phoebe. Now go on call the whitelighters".


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1 

-Piper was in the manor living room enjoying spending time with her family. Her, Leo and the boys were playing a board came. Well actually her and Leo were playing and the boys were messing things up trying to play as well, but nonetheless she was having a great time, enjoying her demon-free life, it had been a long time coming.

-Suddenly, all four of them saw a bright white light appear in front of them followed by a whitelighter. He looked at the four of them like he was waiting for them to magically understand why he was there. After a couple seconds Piper got tired of waiting for him to say something

-"Who are you and what are you doing here"

-The whitelighter looked at her then at Leo before speaking: "umm I'm here to take you to a meeting with the elders, your sisters and Billy are being sent there too so if you would take my hand we will be there right away"

-Piper was get more exasperated every second of his speak. "We are not their lapdogs, they can't just whistle and expect us to show, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what this is about"

-He looked at her, she was being more difficult then he thought she would be. "I'm not at liberty to say, but the elders will tell you everything that you need to know very soon"

-He stopped, just looking at her, hoping that she would come with him. He did not want to be the one to go back to the elders to tell them that he could not get her, that would be bad.

-After a good 10 second of staring contest , Piper finally folded : "Fine I'll go but this better not take too long I got a game to win" She said smirking at Leo. She then took the whitelighter's hand and orbed out.

-When she opened her eyes again she was surprised to see Phoebe, Paige and Billy already there, but she took great pride in hearing them argue with the elders about what the hell they were doing there.

-When the leader realised that Piper was there he dismissed the whitelighters then spoke: -"Well now that everybody's here we can begin". Phoebe turn around to see Piper walking towards her. "What is going on", Phoebe asked her sister. "I don't know but hopefully they will tell us soon" she answered.

-The leader then spoke again: "Ladies if you would just sit down we have a lot to discuss with you".

-The four of them sat down deciding that they might as well hear them out so they can get out of there faster.

-The leader then looked around to his colleges before starting what he knew was going to be a very hard conversation.

-"Four witches have been killed in the last 2 days, by the same demon", he started, "His name is" He was interrupted by Paige, "It's not possible we made a deal with the underworld they needed time to reorganized and we needed time to have a life remember".

-"Well like I said, his name is Darius and he is a very powerful demon, and to answer your question we thought he'd been dead for years until he reappeared a couple days ago, which might explain why he broke the deal, he's not the one who made it"

-"Well that does not matter" continued Phoebe, "a deal is a deal, he should just stick by it".

-"I'm sorry, but it appears he has no intention of doing so. Actually we have every reasons to believe that he is fighting for control of the underworld, he wants to ally all the demons together and take control of everything, this world included", the elder continued, hoping to convince them of how important it was.

-The girls though were still not seeing it. "That does not really matter it never works anyway. Demons are too selfish to work together in small groups so I really doubt he can get all of them to work for him", argued Paige.

-"This is different, he is different, he is very powerful, add that to the powers he stole from the witches he killed and soon enough demons are going to have no other choice but to follow him, this is why we need your help, you need to kill him before he gets too powerful and becomes unstoppable".

-The girls looked at each other, you could tell that it was the last thing they wanted to do. They thought they were done with the demon hunting, but it's not like they had a choice. If they did not do it then they could end up dead like a lot of innocent people, so finally Piper spoke.

-"Fine, We'll kill him. He is probably going to find us soon enough anyway, they always come after us first"

-"Not this time, not this Demon" The elder started, this was the beginning of the conversation he was dreading.

-He continued steadily: "Actually, we are pretty sure that he is going to come after you last. First he needs to find a way to make sure that when he does confronts you he can kill you and that might take a while".

-Phoebe had to laugh at that: "He's probably not as mighty as you think if he's scared of us".

-"He's not, he is just very careful and right now he knows he can't kill all of you."

-"Beside, he knows you well enough to know that if he does not kill all of you at his first attempt he is going to be in trouble".

-"That's the understatement of the century", Piper started.

-"Beside Why do demons always think that they know us, they don't, they don't know anything about us, and neither does this one, I don't understand why you're so scared of this one"

-The elder took a deep breath, this was the time. "We are scared of this one because unlike other demons he does know you and a lot better than you think. He probably knows more about you then you know about each other"

-"That's impossible" Piper continued, "No demons could get close enough to get that much information without us knowing about it".

-"He had an informant a couple years back, one that knows you better than anybody else".

-"Who would that be, we would have known if somebody we knew was spilling information about us to demons."

-"And also if he knows us so well then why are you saying that he can't kill us, it would probably give him an advantage to know us so well" argued Phoebe.

-"I did not say that he could not kill all of you, I said that he could not kill some of you."

-"He can't kill you Phoebe, or Piper. Because of a spell, but he should not have a problem killing Paige or Billy. But until he can get past that spell he is not going to try, he's too careful for that" continued the elder.

-This got the girl's attention. "What spell", exclaimed Piper.

-"A spell that was cast by this informant before he captured her, a protection spell".

-"What kind of person would cast a spell to protect us and then give information to a demon that could get us kill", continued Piper.

-"The information was not given up willingly, Darius got it out by tortur when he was trying to get her to cancel the spell so he could kill the both of you".

-"Who would do that, who would go through torture just to protect us and what does this have to do with anything", Phoebe was getting tired of all of this, but she had no idea how what the elder was going to say next would affect her life.

-"The informant, it's , hummm, it's your sister, it's Prudence and you need to know because you are going to need her help to vanquish him, she…", he could not finish his sentence Piper interrupted him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2 

-"It, it can be, she's dead, she's been dead five years, it can't be, it can't be" she stammered.

-Phoebe was standing there frozen, it could not be true, it just couldn't. Paige on the other side was looking between her sisters who both looked at the elder frozen while Billy had no idea what was going on, wait did he just say sister!!!

-The leader looked around again at his colleges hoping to find some sort of comfort for was going to happen once he said what he was a bout to say.

- "I'm sorry", he started, "you were never supposed to find out, but it is true your sister is alive, she never died she was taken by Darius that day, he is the one that faked her death, we only figured it out a week later".

-Piper was listening to him, she could not believe it, her sister was alive, she was not dead. Then something caught her attention, she exclaimed: "Wait, you knew, you knew, and you did not tell us", she could not understand, her sister was alive and in danger and nobody cared to tell them about it. "Why"?

-Piper was getting more upset every passing second, while Phoebe was as white as a sheet.

-Paige had no idea what she was suppose to do or say, she couldn't rack her head around the fact that Prue was supposedly alive, it was just too weird. While she was still considering that the elder finally spoke again.

-"We had a decision to make and we made it, we did what we thought was best at the time. When we found out, Prudence was being held captive and tortured by a demon, you guys were still mourning her, you've just found Paige. We did not know what would have happened have you 4 been brought together, I mean it is the power of three not the power of four. We were pretty sure she was not going to make it anyway, so we just decided to leave things as they were it was for the best". He finished, he truly believed what he had just said, at the time they were certain they were doing the right thing, but now looking at them he was starting to have doubts.

-Piper was enraged now. They were supposed to be the good guys and they had just left Prue there after all the good she had done they had just left her there to die.

-Paige wanting to relieve the tension in the room and needing some sort of confirmation of what he was saying, that Prue really was alive asked: "Do you have any proof, or are we just supposed to take your word for it, I mean it could be a shapeshifter or a spell or anything".

-The leader thought about this for a few seconds then called another elder up to the front with him.

-"We started looking for your sister when we realised that we had not received her powers back. Your guys know that when a witch dies her powers are sent back to the collective so that then can be reassigned partly or completely to another witch."

-"When we did not get her powers back we had to improvised to give you your powers, Paige. Afterwards, we started looking into it until we found what we were looking for, one of the elder had a vision and saw everything that happened. If it would help you, we will show you".

-He put his hands on either sides of the other elders' head and the girls saw an image in front of them. It took them a couple seconds to realised what it was, well for Piper and Phoebe, Paige and Billy had no idea but were intrigued.

-It was the manor, the day Prue had supposedly died. The first image they saw was Piper and Prue laying on the floor both bleeding. The image stayed like that for a couple minute until they saw Prue moving. Piper and Phoebe could not believe it she was moving she was not dead.

-They kept watching. They then saw Prue sitting up and touching up her stomach where she was bleeding, grunting from the pain.

-Then they heard what they never thought they would hear again, they heard her speak. -"Damn" she said, "I loved that sweater, he's going to pay for that", she then looked around, "Piper, wake up, the big, ugly monster left without saying goodbye we need to ground him or something" she said smiling, until she realised her sister was not waking up.

-She started to panic: "Piper, Piper wake up you have to wake up sweetie".

-When she saw no movement from her sister she started calling for Leo: "Leo, Leo !! get your ass down here, Piper's hurt, Leo! Leo! Dammit where are you".

-The sister watched as Prue put her hand on Piper's stomach to stop the bleeding, while still calling for Leo. Then they saw her stop yelling and turn around just in time to see a fire ball heading in her direction.

She raised her hand and send the fireball right back to the demon who threw it at her. The sisters could see that there was now at least a dozen demons in the manor. They also noticed one demon in the staircase who seemed to be doing nothing put observing, he did not seem worried at all, which made the sisters pretty certain that it was Darius.

-The girls kept looking at Prue. While Piper and Phoebe were wrapping their head around the fact that Prue was alive, Paige had to say that Prue was impressive, even Billy noticed it when she looked at her: "God's she's good", she said. "Yeah she is" responded Paige. -Prue was really good, even hurt and with at least 10 demons trying to kill her, she was in control of the situation.

-Paige noticed that no matter what they threw at her she always kept herself between the demons and Piper. Paige looked at Piper to see if she had noticed and just by seeing the expression on her face, she knew. Piper knew exactly what Prue was doing and it did not seem to surprise her at all that Prue would do that.

-They watched as Prue took out the first 7 demons pretty easily. Then something changed, Darius started looking worried, he addressed two of the remaining demons: "You two, the other one is in the underworld, find her and kill her. This is going to show this one not to cross me". The two demons were about to shimmer out when one of them was set one fire by Prue. She could not take both of them out though and the other one left.

-The sister watched as Prue tried to find a way to protect Phoebe. Then they saw. They saw Prue concentrate, they could see her lips moving. It lasted less then 1 minute but it was enough time for the remaining demons to get a hold of her.

-They watched Darius coming toward Prue, He stopped right in front of her. Piper and Phoebe could barely watch but they could not look away either.

-Darius addressed Prue. " I got to say you had me worried there for a moment . Sadly for you as a punishment you are going to watch me kill your sisters"

-Prue was struggling to get free, yelling for them to leave her sisters alone. She Screamed a desperate cry when she saw a fireball heading straight to Piper. But the ball did not hit her, it disintegrated right before.

-Darius was getting pissed off: "Kill her" he screamed. The three remaining demons all fired multiples times but none of them were able to get to Piper. Darius was now beyond pissed, he took a step forward and summoned a huge energy ball that he sent straight to Piper. It again disintegrated. They then tried everything including spells and charms, anything to kill Piper nothing worked.

-Piper had to admit it was weird watching demons try to kill her, but at the same time it made her ache, if she had been awake she could have helped Prue out.

-They tried until the demon that had left to get Phoebe came back and told Darius that he had been unsuccessful.

-"What, how hard can it be, she is not that strong, kill her". The demon answered. "I tried, I got Balthazar knocked out, but everything that I threw at her disintegrated, I have no idea why, I mean…". He was about to continue but was cut by Darius spinning around to face Prue.

-"It was you wasn't it. You did this. Undo it now."

-"I have no idea what you are talking about" answered Prue.

-"Undo this or I kill you"

-"I don't know who you think you are but you are going to kill me anyhow, no matter what I do. But I gotta say, this is not doing anything for your reputation as a big bad demon. I mean you could not even get rid of three girls, your pathetic."

-Paige smirked, watching Prue interact with the demon had her in awe, her sister really was all that Piper and Phoebe had told her she was.

-"I am going to kill you and then I am going to spend the rest of my time undoing this spell. You are not going to win, all three of you are dying, this is not an option." Darius screamed.

-"Well that is going to be kind of hard with me dead, my death will seal the spell"

-"Your bluffing"

-"Am I?" She had him and she knew it. "I am a Charmed One, I can do anything I please, do you think I am stupid enough not to make the spell so the my death makes it permanent ?"

-"You will reverse the spell even if I have to torture you for the rest of time to get you to do it, either way you are never going to see your sisters again. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life suffering just so they can live another day".

-"You would be surprised by how much I am willing to do to protect my sisters. Beside they will find me and kick your sorry ass."

-"No they won't. They are going to move on with their life and forget you never existed."

Prue was about to retort something when Darius knock her out with an energy ball.

-"Take her down there, I'll take care of her later".

-He looked around and fixed his eyes on Piper, then looked around to where the last demon stood. "You, I need you to shapeshift into her, just in case she is right about her sisters".

-"Yes ,sir" ,was the other's respond and he shifted his appearance just so he would look exactly like Prue.

- Darius then stabbed him in the stomach. "Lay there, come back after the funeral, once their convinced she's dead." Then he looked around again and shimmered out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3 

-The girls kept staring at the screen until the Elder took his hands away from the other' head and the image disappeared.

-Billy looked around her. Paige looked nervously at her sisters, while Phoebe had her head in her hands, she clearly looked distraught. Piper on the other hand had tears in her eyes and was looking at the Elders like she was ready to kill all of them.

-Billy was worried, the sisters were like sisters to her and she was worried about them, but she did not know what she could do and did not even know that they had another sister until now.

-The elder was about to speak again when Piper interrupted him. Her crying had yet to subside but she still addressed the Elder: "What, what happened to her down there". She looked so small, nothing like the Piper Halliwell Billy knew.

-"I don't think this is a good idea for you to know, it is not going to help anything. We should focus on discussing how to convince your sister to help you defeat Darius before it is too late. He …". He did not get to finish his sentence once again, but this time Phoebe was the one to interrupt him.

-Phoebe had not said a world since they had been told that Prue was alive and everybody was surprised to here her speak. Piper almost had forgotten that Phoebe was there too.

-"NO, No! you don't get to do that", she screamed. "You don't get to just stand there and tell us that we don't need to know. WE DO GET TO KNOW, SHE IS OUR SISTER FOR GOD'S SAKE. I am not listening to anything you have to say until you tell me what happened".

-Phoebe was crying now, she closed her eyes to stop it, she could not cry. Piper looked at her sister, her pain was so obvious.

-The elder looked at Piper "Look Piper, I know this is a lot but you need to make your sister understand that we have no time to loose, we…"

-"NO" Piper started, "She's right we deserve to know what se went through. We deserve to know that much." She paused. "In fact we deserve to know everything, and we are not doing anything until you tell us everything".

-She sadly looked over at Phoebe and took her hand in hers. Phoebe looked up at her and gave her a sad smile.

-The elders looked between them and realised that they were not going to back down so he started explaining.

-"He tortured her", he started, "he tortured her physically and emotionally. Everything he could think of he did to her. At first, she fought but after about three month she gave up fighting and just took everything without as much as a grunt."

-"Why" asked Piper nervously. She feared the answer but needed to hear it.

-"Prue tried to contact you guys, she tried for months. She was pretty cleaver about it too, they did not know about it. Unfortunately, Darius ultimately found out. He could have punished her by torturing her again but decided for another tactics. He showed her what you guys were doing. He showed her that she had been replaced, he showed her that you guys were happy and that you had move on, had forgotten about her, and certainly were not coming for her. Why would you, you had another sister now you did not need her."

-The Elder looked at the sisters, if they had looked upset before, now they just looked broken.

-"He kept showing her things like that until she stopped fighting. He hoped that it would help convince her to undo the spell, knowing that she was doing that for people that did not care at all, but it did not. It just made her stopped trying to contact you guys".

-When he paused in his explanation Piper retorted. "It did not worked, I mean if it had we would have known so it did not work, her messages did not get through right."

-She knew something was not right when she saw the elders looking at each other worriedly.

-"What, what aren't you telling us this time", she accused.

-"I'm sorry". The elder started. "Her messages did get through, we intercepted them". He stopped again.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4 

-"What do you mean you …" Piper could not understand what was going on it was just too much.

-"Like I told you before. We had made a decision. When we found out about Prue we decided that Paige was to remain and Prue was to stay gone, it was better that way. We seriously thought they were going to kill her pretty quickly but unfortunately Darius was more persistent then we thought and so was so sister".

-"When we intercepted the first message, we again reconvene to discuss our course of action and we decided to keep intercepting the messages until she either died or stopped sending them. We just could not risk you guys finding out. I mean you had just started to move on and accept Paige, the last thing we needed was for that to jeopardize everything".

-Piper could not believe it, they had abandoned her, all of them had left Prue to die an horrible death. She could not control herself anymore.

-" YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER, YOU COULD HAVE KILLED PRUE. NOT ONLY THAT YOU MADE HER THINK WE DID NOT CARE, HOW COULD YOU. HOW COULD YOU." She took a deep breath.

-"It is because of you is in it? This is why you think that she is not going to want to see us". Piper stared at the Elders desperately hoping that one of them was going to tell her that she was wrong, but none of them spoke until once again the leader started talking.

-"You are right it is our fault, but this is not why we worry she is not going to want to help you. We did more" . he paused.

-"Prue was able to escape after 16 months down there. He had long stopped monitoring her and only found out about it when a Whiteligther saw her a couple blocks from the manor. We immediately told him to get her up here before either of you saw her."

-"It took three of us to heal her, she was in pretty bad shape, but you know your sister before we were even done she wanted to leave to see you and ask you guys why you had not gone for her".

-"We did not know what to do, it was still too risky to have you guys see her so we convinced her not to". He paused again. Looking at the sisters.

-For the first time he noticed that both of them were looking at him. Phoebe was looking at him, no longer at her shoes. She looked straight at him.

-"How, how did you convince her", She knew, she knew how, she could feel it but she hoped it wasn't true, that they would not do that. Her voice was so low that most elders did not ear her but the Leader did.

-"We". "We told her… We confirmed what Darius had been telling her all this time. We told her that you knew she was alive and being held hostage by a demon but that you had chosen not to go after her, because it was too dangerous."

-"NO" this time it was Piper who screamed.

-"She would never believe something like that, she knows we would never let her to die alone and in pain, she knows". She was crying again. It could not be true Prue would not believe that kind of lies, would she?

-"I am sorry, but she did believe us. Not at first, but we showed her, we showed her the manor, how Paige was now in her room, how all the pictures with her in it had been taken down and replaced with pictures of you three, we showed her how happy you were without her, how Paige was the only sister you needed now. Eventually she accepted that she had nothing to do in your life anymore, that you did not want her. She accepted the truth".

-"She was angry though, at us, but mostly at you. We wanted to make sure that she would not come after you, so we suggested wiping her memory so that she could start a new life anywhere she wanted. We could have taken away the pain and the deception, but she refused. She said she would do it, she would walk away never to try to contact either of you again but she did not want us to take her memory. She said it was the only way she could be sure never to make the same mistakes again. Finally we accepted, but we made it clear that if she try to contact you, we would wipe her memory. We then had a whitelighter orb her to the location of her choice where she was given a new identity and has been living until now."

-He was done. He had to say he felt relieved he had told them everything and now they were going to be able to talk about the real threat: Darius.

-Unfortunately, as soon as he looked at the girls he new it was not going to be that easy.

-Both of them were looking at him accusingly. Both of them with tears in their eyes, but as Phoebe was refusing to let them fall, Piper wasn't; she was in tears.

-"SHE HATES US, SHE HATES US AND ITS ALL YOUR FAULT. YOU MADE HER HATE US. YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM US" She was upset, so upset in fact that without realising it she made the elder explode. Once he rematerialized he looked at her.

-"I know you are upset, you have every right to be. But like I said we are sorry about your pain, but what done is done. We all need to get past that and move on we have a demon to kill." He handed Piper a sheet of paper. She looked at Phoebe whose hand she was still holding and then opened up the paper. On it was an address. The Elder continued.

-"This is your sister's address, she lives in Spain as you can see. We need you guys to find her, tell her about Darius and get her to tell you as much as she knows on him. You need her help to vanquish him, so you need to convince her. So what about you…"

-"NO" Phoebe was the one who spoke. Her eyes fixed on the address.

-"What? What do you mean no?" The Elder answered.

-"I mean I'm done. We're done. You don't get to give me orders anymore. Take care of your demon yourself I'm done". Phoebe spoke coldly and started walking away toward Paige.

-"You can't" the elder started "You're the only ones strong enough to take care of it. We need the power of three. Two of you is not going to be enough. Piper do something make her understand." The Elder pleaded with Piper while she looked at the address in her hand, Prue' address, her sister's address, the address of her sister who hated her because of what they had done and then she made her mind.

-"NO".

-This got everybody's attention even Phoebe who was now 3 feet away from Paige and Billy.

-"She's right, we're done. Done with you, done with all of this. Get somebody else to kill your Demon". She started walking toward her sisters.

-"He's going to go after her you know. Eventually he'll figure out where she is and he will kill her." It was a low blow and he knew it, but they had to understand how important it was to kill Darius.

-"Even if we get her to go after him, alone she does not stand a chance, not with the surplus of power he is going to have"

-Piper turned around tears and rage in her eyes. "Stay away from her. She has nothing to do with this. Leave her alone; you hurt her enough already."

-"I am serious. If you hurt her in any way, I am going to kill you, every single one of you" She was dead serious about this and they needed to know.

-"Piper, you have to understand something. The longer Darius is out there the more dangerous he becomes. If you refuse to help us we are going to need somebody to and Prue is the best choice, she got away from him once already".

-"FINE, OK FINE, We will kill him ok. But this does not mean that we're okay. Once this is over I never want to see any of your kind around my family, or I will kill you".

-She started walking back toward her sisters, then turned around.

- "And We will go after Prue when we are both ready, not one second before. I don't care how long it take. We never let a Demon rule the world before, we are not going to start now, but you need to stay the hell away from us and Prue because if you don't I am going to leave you to take care of him on your on to see how well you do. UNDERSTOOD."

-"Deal, but the longer you wait the harder it is going to be", The Elder calmly asserted.

-Piper did not even look back. "It is hard enough already."

-She then looked at Paige. "Take us out of here please". Paige did not say a word just orbed then back to the manor.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5 

The four of them orbed back to the manor. Once there, they all stood there not knowing what to say. Piper still holding the address of her not so dead sister, she had no idea what she was supposed to do next, how to handle things.

-The silence was broken not by the girls, but by Leo who entered the living room.

-"Hey, you're back! What was it about? Demon on the loose?"

-Piper looked back at Leo. "um Leo, Hi!", she stammered. "We hum…"

-She did not get the time to finish her sentence before Paige spoke out: "Hey Phoebe, where are you going" she asked her sister, who in the mere seconds it had took for Piper to answer Leo was now halfway through the living room on her way to the door.

-Phoebe turned around. She looked so broken, so lost, it made Paige want to cry.

-"I, I can't be here, not now, not after this, it's just, I just can't okay. I need to go." She did not even wait for an answer before she practically ran out the door.

-Paige sighed that was going to be hard.

-Piper kept staring at the door Phoebe had just exited from then at her hand then she too ran, but not outside. Piper ran out crying upstairs, not even acknowledging Leo on her way up.

-"Piper", Leo took off after her.

-He was about to open the door to his bedroom when he noticed Piper had locked the door. Something must really be wrong Piper never locked the door, he thought.

-"Piper, let me in. I know something is wrong. Please tell me. Honey please open the door." He finally heard her answer but it was not what he expected. "Leave, I don't want to see anybody, just leave me alone", she sobered.

-Leo looked sadly at the door wishing she would let him in. After a couple minutes, he gave up realizing that she was not going to let him in. So he made is way downstairs, if Piper was not going to tell him, maybe Paige or Billy would.

-He walked into the living room to find Paige with her head in her hands and Billy sitting on the couch beside her, with her hand soothingly rubbing circle on her back.

-When they heard him both girls looked back at him before looking in front of them again. Something was really wrong, he knew it. Piper and Phoebe almost never broke down like that they were strong.

-"What's going on", He asked.

-"How's Piper". Paige answered.

-"Not good she won't let me in, says she does not want to see anybody". He sighed then looked back at the girls.

-"Phoebe ran out looking liked she'd seen a ghost. Then Piper ran out to her bedroom crying, shutting me out. Paige, you look completely overwhelm while you Billy just look confused. So I'm going to ask again. What is going on?"

-"Leo, I'm sorry. I just… I don't know if it is my secret to tell", Paige looked up at Leo.

-"Look Paige. This is my family too. I need to know. Please."

-"Ok.", she started. "Well I don't really know what to say"

-"We went there and then they…" She was interrupted by Billy who after all this time needed to know what was going on.

-"Who's Prue" She asked. Paige looked at her accusingly. Leo looked between the girls.

-"She was the girls' older sister. What about her". He looked back at Paige.

-"Is", she simply said.

-"What"

-"I said Prue IS our older sister", Paige retorted. If that was not clear enough she had no idea what would be.

"Wait what do you mean is", Leo was still not getting it.

-"What I mean is that the reason Piper and Phoebe are so upset is because the elders just told us that apparently Prue never died. She was kidnapped by some demon who now wants control of the underworld. So the elders want us to find her and get her to help us vanquish him before he vanquishes us, which is going to be hard seeing as she hates us". She ranted.

-Leo sat down, Prue was alive, that's impossible he had seen her body with is own eyes. He was the one to tell Piper she was dead. "It's impossible, she was dead, I saw her, I could not heal her, she was already dead."

-"No, the reason you could not heal her is because it was not her. It was a shape-shifting demon posing as her so Piper and Phoebe would not know that she was alive."

-"By the way how could you not know it was not her?" Paige asked.

-"I,I don't know", he stumbled. Then he thought of something. "Wait, if we did not know, then how did the elders find out?"

-Paige sighed this was the part that pissed her off.

-"Well they found out about a week afterwards but decided not to do anything because it could have screwed with their precious Charmed Ones. They left her to died there and did everything they could to keep us from knowing about it. When she blew off their plan by getting out of there alive, They convinced her to walk away by showing her how happier Piper and Phoebe were without her and by telling her that they knew about her being tortured and decided not to do anything. So next thing we know she ends up god knows where and all of our lives are screwed". She finished, a couple tears now rolling on her cheeks.

-"Leo, I have no idea what to do." Paige whined.

-"I think it's not in our power to do anything but to try to be there for them". Leo started.

-"But what about Prue? I mean, they don't look like there going to go to her anytime soon. What if the demon gets to her first? We can't let him kill her."

-"Even if we knew where she was, we can't go to her. It's not for us to do. Piper and Phoebe need to do that on there own. They're scared probably, hopefully they'll get over it soon. There's not much we can do to protect Prue in the meantime, but if she's still Prue I'm pretty sure she can defend herself until her sisters are ready to face her". Leo finished.

-"Scared! Scared of what? They're the Charmed Ones, they don't get scared of anything." Billy objected.

-"Deception. They never could stand the idea of deceiving Prue. For her to hate them, even if I have difficulty believing it's possible, has to be the worst thing that could possibly happen". Leo could not comprehend the idea of Prue hating her sisters, to him it seemed surreal.

-They talked again for a couple minutes before Leo decided to go check on Piper again. Maybe she would talk to him this time.

-He knocked: "Piper, talk to me please. I only want to help. I know about Prue, please open the door", he stopped waiting to see if she was going to do something. She did finally do something but it was the opposite of what he expected. She turned on the radio and cranked the volume loud enough to block the sound of his voice. "Great", he nagged.

-He walked back downstairs to see Paige and Billy looking at him.

-"Guess that did not work," Billy stated

-"So what do we do now", Paige asked.

-"We wait at some point or another she'll open up, it's just a question of time", he stated hopefully.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6 

-When he had said she needed time, he had no idea it was going to take this long. It had been over a week now. Piper was having as less contact with anybody as she could. She focused most of her energy on taking care of the boys.

-Each time Leo tried to get her to open up, she would completely ignore him, and go lock herself up in their room.

-Phoebe was not doing much better according to Paige. At first she had tried pretending that everything was fine, but after less then 2 days she had given up on that and was now ignoring everybody. Paige doubted that Phoebe had spoke at all, to anybody, in the last 7 days. Seriously, they were starting to worry him. They needed to find a way to get them dealing with this and stat.

-"We have to do something", claimed Paige the next morning.

-"I know, I just don't know what"

-"There has to be one person on this planet they can open to" Paige questioned.

-Leo thought about it for a second. "Actually there is. Prue".

-Paige almost had to laugh at that: "You know there's no way that's going to happen right?"

-"It's the only way. I've seen her do it thousands of time."

-"Well what I mean is that she won't", Paige retorted.

-"She will if we force them. We're going to need Billy and the Elders though".

-"No" Paige stated. "Piper and Phoebe made it clear we are done with them, and I kind of agree with that".

-"Look, I know okay, but we need the address so Billy can go and bring Prue back". He continued:

-"Here's the plan, you orb up there get her address then Give it to Billy. She goes to her, find an excuse to get her to orb with her to P3 where we know they'll have plenty of space to work it out."

-"There never going to forgive us, you know", Paige sadly said.

-"I'd like to believe that if things turn out okay they will", Leo answered.

-"Fine, I'll go to the Elders, call Billy get her here", and with that she orbed out.

-When she came back with the address about half and hour later, Billy and Leo were talking in the kitchen. "Paige did you get it", Billy asked. She was the only one of them that was thrilled about this whole plan. She was going to meet another Charmed One.

-"Yeah, took a while but they gave it out", she answered. She felt like a traitor going behind her sister's back like that, but Leo was right it was the only way.

-"So have you figured out a way to get her to follow you", Paige asked.

-"I did. I'm going to tell her the truth". Billy declared.

-"You're kidding right?" Paige asked incredulous.

-"Yeah, well partly. I'm not going to tell her about you guys, but I'm going to tell her that I'm a witch and need her help. From what Leo told me about her it should work", Billy proudly stated.

-Paige was still unsure about this whole thing. "That is if she hasn't change too much".

-"Well, we'll see", she said before getting up and standing in front of them with a potion in her hand. "Make sure to get Piper and Phoebe there okay".

-"We'll be there don't worry", Leo reassured before Billy disappeared.

-"You get Phoebe, I'll get Piper. I don't care what you tell her, just get her there!" With that he left towards the stairs and Paige orbed out. "I hope this works she thought out loud".


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7 

-Billy looked around the place she had just materialized to, the house in front of her was beautiful, she check the address to make sure she was in the right place. Then she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

-The door opened a couple seconds later and she was now face to face with a raven haired women. She looked at her a little longer to make sure it was really her, and when the women looked at her, her eyes, they were a piercing grey, she knew it was her. The women looked older but it was definitively Prue Halliwell.

-"Hi! Can I help you?" She said.

-Billy froze for a second but soon enough snapped out of it. She needed to do this they counted on her. "Hi, Sorry. Hummm, I need your help."

-"Do I know you?." The woman asked.

-"No, you don't. But let's just say that we have a lot in common". Billy then took the plant that stood by the door and made it blossom right in front of Prue.

-Prue was stunned, so the girls was a witch how did she know about her? What did she want?

-"Can I come in?" Billy asked the stunned woman.

-"Yeah, um, sure", Prue answered uneasily. She did not know if she could trust the girl but she figured. Better in the house, then outside where everybody could see, so she let her in.

-"Okay, so I don't really know to do this. Like I said I need your help, magical help I mean", Billy started. She had to give herself props she had not lied yet and she was inside the house.

-"How do you know about me, how do you know I can help", Prue answered.

-"The Elders told me where to find you, they said you could help", Again she was not technically lying.

-"I'm sorry, but the Elders and I are not really on speaking terms".

-"I know, and I'm not their biggest fan either, but I need your help to vanquish this demon. The elders said you knew him", Billy knew she was on slippery slope now she could not afford to mess up.

-"Knew who", Prue was intrigued now. The Elders had kept her existence a secret from everybody. If they had told this girl then something bad must be on the verge of happening.

-"The Demon". Billy was grabbing at straws. She had no idea if telling Prue about Darius would help or simply make everything worst.

-"Are you playing me, because I have better things to do." Prue was getting irritated.

-"No, I'm not. I just really need you to come with me and I don't know if you will if I tell you who the demon is".

-Billy was doing her best puppy dog eyes, the ones that always worked on the sisters hoping that it would work with this one as well.

-Lucky for her, Prue softened. "You are going to tell me at some point right?"

-"Yeah, sure. My whitelighter will explain everything as soon as we get there"

-"Get where?" Prue questioned.

-"A safe place where we can talk, please". She could not imagine what would happen if she had to tell Paige that she had not been able to convince Prue.

-"Okay, fine. But this better not be a trap or something like that"

-Oh crap Billy thought. "Of course not. Nothing is going to happen to you." Well she was not really lying again. Prue would be physically safe. It's emotionally that she wasn't so sure.

-"Take my hand". With that the two of them disappeared.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8 

-Leo walked in direction of his bedroom. Hoping that he was doing the right thing by forcing Piper, Phoebe and Prue to meet.

-He gently knocked on the door. This new habit that Piper had of locking doors had to go. -Piper opened the door.

-"Billy called, she's in trouble, she said she would meet us at P3, your sisters are going to meet us there. Come on".

-Piper looked at him, and Leo hoped she would buy it. He hated lying to her but he did not see another way to get her to go with him.

-"What about the boys" , she asked.

-"They're at your dad's, don't you remember."

-"Oh, sorry, I must have forgotten", she sighed. "What's wrong with her. Billy I mean?"

-"I don't know she only said that she needed help and for us to meet her at P3".

-"So are you coming?"

-"Yeah, sure." With hat they left in direction of the car. Leo only hoped that Paige would be able to get Phoebe there as well.

-At the same time, Paige was nervously pacing in the hallway in front of Phoebe's apartment. She needed to come up with a strategy, before she could work up the courage to face Phoebe.

-She had changed so much in the last week, Paige had trouble comprehending that it really was the same girl. Finally she knocked on the door and waited.

-Phoebe appeared at the door about two minutes later. She was used to Paige coming to check on her so she just let her in without saying a word.

-"So the place looks good. I can see you've been cleaning since the last time I was here." She was nervous and it showed. Phoebe looked at her curiously, wondering what was going on.

-"Sorry about that but, I need you to come with me. Not to the house I promise. I know you don't want to be there I get it. I told Piper that I was going to make sure that P3 was running smoothly but the manager just called and apparently there is a problem. I figured since you know the place better then me maybe you could help out, and it would make you get some fresh air as well, so in my book it's a win-win". She finished her rant.

-Phoebe looked at her and Paige could see that it was probably the last thing she wanted to do.

-"Look I know your upset and I'm not asking you to talk about it, or even to talk to me, but I miss my sister". She pleaded with Phoebe.

-They simply stared at each other until finally Phoebe took a step forward and grabbed Paige hand. Paige took that as a yes so she orbed them to P3 right away.

-When they got there, they noticed that Piper and Leo were already there. Paige and Leo shared a look both hoping that Billy would show with Prue as soon as possible.

-Piper and Phoebe were looking at each other. They had not seen each other once since Phoebe had run out of the manor more than a week ago. There was this distance between them that neither knew how to fill, they were both lost and they knew it.

-All four of them remained in silence for a good 10 minutes, Leo was really starting to worry that Billy had gotten herself into trouble. But at last he saw the beginning of an orb. He looked worryingly at Paige who shared his exact expression.

-Piper and Phoebe had expected to see Billy so it was not really a surprise. What was though was the person who appeared right after Billy.

- "Prue" Piper said, so low that nobody heard it but Leo who was standing beside her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9 

-Prue had no idea what she had been expecting to see on the other side of the orb but it certainly was not what she was seeing now.

-Her sisters, there were there, and they had this surprised expression on their faces. The same expression she assumes she was wearing. She could not understand this, this girl Billy knew her sisters, and not only that she had tricked her into seeing them.

- That seriously pissed her off, enough to take her eyes away from her sisters to look at Billy accusingly: "You lied".

-" Not really. There is a demon and I do need your help. Only difference is so do they. I work with them, their like family, and Paige is my whitelighter". She was trying to convince Prue that her intentions were good but it did not seem to be working.

-"Well you can keep your family because I certainly am done with them. So if you'll excuse me I am going to go". And with that she started toward the door.

-Leo had hoped that the sisters would have said something by now but they all seemed frozen.

-Paige seemed terrorized, while Piper had yet to take her eyes off Prue who she had been staring at since she had appeared out of nowhere. Phoebe had had the opposite reaction looking anywhere but at Prue. Leo could see that if Prue had not been standing between the door and herself she would have been long gone.

-He realized that he would have to do something if he did not want her to walk out of their life forever. "It's Darius" he said impulsively.

-Prue froze, then slowly turn around purposely avoid looking at her sisters and fixing her eyes on Leo: "What".

-"The Demon, his name is Darius. The Elders told us you know him. We need your help. Your sisters need your help"

-Prue laughed bitterly: "I don't have sisters" she said coldly.

- "Beside, no one, not even the elders cared that much about vanquishing him when he was torturing me. So why would I do them or you any favour?"

-"Because he has bigger plans this time, he is killing witches, he wants control of the underworld, and if he does take it… Well let's just say it's not going to be good for anybody". Leo was trying to rationalize with her but again it did not seem to be taking him anywhere.

-"You don't even have to fight him yourself, the girls will take care of that. All we need is for you to tell us what you know about him, that's all".

-Prue seem to be considering that for a few seconds then she spoke again: "Fine".

-"Okay well what can I say. He was really nice. He always stopped torturing me when I fell unconscious so I would feel what he was doing to me. He used to tie me to the wall and throw energy balls at me until I couldn't stop shaking. He carved things on my skin with a knives, things that he knew would hurt me to see. Umm, I've forgotten something let me see. Umm, he knew how much I missed my sisters so he used to conjure this screen so that I could watch them enjoying themselves with there new sister while I was down there. Like I said real nice guy. Umm what else can I tell you? He…"

-"STOP!! OKAY JUST STOP". Piper could not take it anymore. It was just too hard to hear her talk like that.

-Prue looked at her sister. And she had to say that for a second there she could almost see pain in her sister's eyes, but she knew better then to believe it. They did not care then why would they care now?

-"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. We should have gotten you out of there. We don't have any excuses. I'm so sorry Prue. I'm so sor…"She could not even finish her sentence, she just broke down crying. Leo tried to calm her down, but she would not let him she fought out of his grasp.

-"Stop it Piper, it's not your fault, it's not". For a second there Piper thought that maybe Prue had been the one to say theses words but when she looked up she saw that it was Paige that has spoken. She was about to keep going when Piper interrupted her again.

-"Shut up Paige. Okay. You don't know what you're talking about". She knew taking things out on Paige was wrong, it was not her fault, but she just could not help herself.

-"Look Piper, I'm sorry, but I can't take it anymore. It's been 10 days now. Ever since you found out, you and Phoebe have been nothing else but self-destruct and I can's take it anymore. I want my sisters back. Leo said this was the only way, so here we are. Beside, we still have a demon to fight, and we can't do it alone remember what the Elders said, he knows us, he'll see us coming and we'll be dead before we can do anything, we need her please." Paige stopped, taking a breath.

-"DON'T! I think I was pretty clear, we don't talk about them ever again, you hear me". Piper did not even care that Prue was still in the room, her hatred for the Elders took over. "Beside. Darius can't touch us remember. It's not like it's an emergency, you did not have to go behind our back, you had no right."

-"He can't touch you or Phoebe. Me, Billy and all the other witches he intends to kill on the other hand don't have this advantage". Paige retorted. Piper was being selfish and that was pissing her off.

-"Beside if I were you I would remember the reason why he can't hurt you, because it's due to none of your doings". Paige accused.

-Leo decided that he had to put a stop to this. The reason they had done that in the first place was certainly not so they could turn on each other.

-"Stop it. Okay. All of you. Piper I know your upset, but your going to have to deal with that because right now we need to deal with this demon, before the world as we know it is gone. And Paige, maybe you should give her a break".

-He tried to resonate with the sisters so that they could move on to the important thing, vanquishing Darius.

-"Prue, I know this is probably very hard for you too, but there is also a lot that you don't know, so I'm asking you to please put aside your differences just for a little while. You guys can deal with everything later. Please."

-Prue looked around the room and for the first time realized that Leo was right there was some things she did not know. Her sisters looked way too upset for the reason to be only guilt.

-Piper looked so sad, while Phoebe, well she could not really tell you how Phoebe looked because she had not made eye-contact at all, and was concentrating on her shoes. -Realizing that, Prue decided to let it go, at least for now. Leo was right they could handle that later.

-"You are right. I'll help you. But that does not make things okay between us. Not by a long shot."

-Then she looked at Billy who still stood beside her.

-"And if YOU do something like that ever again you won't live to see your next birthday. You hear me?"

-Billy looked at her shoes sheepishly, "Sorry".

-Paige felt bad, it was not Billy's idea, she should not have to be blamed for this.

-"This is not her fault, we asked her to do it. You should not hold it up against her". She pleaded with Prue.

-"I don't know what you want but just so you know they're your sisters now I don't want them back so you have no reasons to even talk to me got it". She almost regretted saying it when she saw the expression on Paige's face at this, she was hurt.

-Prue could not help it though, a lot of the worst memories that she had from her time with Darius were him telling her that her sisters were letting her die there because they had Paige now so therefore they did not need her anymore. She could not help but blame Paige for what had happened to her.

-Leo decided that they should leave before another argument started between the newly reunited sisters.

-"Paige, why don't you orb us all back to the manor so we can look up the book of shadows and figure out what to do next."

-Prue froze. If there was one place she did not want to see it was the manor. She was puzzled though by the fact that Phoebe had froze mid-step at hearing Leo. Something definitively was going on.

-"Look, I don't know about this, I mean…" Prue started.

-"I know it has to be hard, but it's the safest place, beside it's where the Book of Shadows is, so we all are going to have to deal with that. That means you too Phoebe. Okay".

-Prue looked over at Phoebe who had taken a couple steps back and looked like she would rather do anything but go to the manor. As she watched Phoebe, everybody else but her and Phoebe had moved close to Paige, so Prue took a couple step toward them, slowly until she reached them. She stopped and looked up to find Piper looking at her through her tears.

-Piper then looked back at Phoebe who had yet to take a step and was now staring at the door. Without saying a word, she walked toward her, stopped in front of her and gently took her hand.

-Prue watched as Piper gently pulled Phoebe toward them, and stopped once she had.

-"Ready". Asked Paige.

-Piper, who still had hold of Phoebe's hand nodded her approval and took Paige's hand. --Prue was looking around not knowing what to do until Billy sweetly offered her, her hand to hold. Prue nodded and took it, not sure if she was ready to see the manor again. But it's not like she had a choice anyway. "So there we go", she thought.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10 

-Prue had always been the strong one out of her sisters, but now looking around her at the house she grew up in she felt anything but strong. Everything that once felt so familiar to her now felt foreign and she did not like the sensation so she tried to shake it up.

-"Like what you've done with the place", she panned.

-Her sisters were too busy trying to pretend that they were fine with having Prue back in the manor to notice.

-Prue walked around the living room looking at her surrendering. "I got to say I'm not that surprised to see the pictures gone, I mean they probably did not fit with the new décor". She could not prevent it, being there made her uncomfortable and the only way she could deal with that was to bitch about it.

-At that Piper looked around. "No! We just, we just. Sorry". She was at a loss for word, she had no idea what to say to Prue. Ironic considering that before she would tell Prue anything without even hesitating.

-Leo could see the distress in his wife so he decided to give her some time to recollect herself. "Piper, why don't you go get the book while we get settle here."

-Piper hesitated, looking at Phoebe's hand that was now clutched to hers tightly. Paige noticed Piper's hesitation and stepped closer taking Phoebe's other hand. "Go, I've got her. It's alright."

-Piper looked at Phoebe who still had not released her hand. "It's alright Phoebe" She said. "Paige's got you, you'll be fine. Beside, Prue would never hurt you, you know that. A lot has changed but that is one thing that I doubt changed".

-She had no idea if it was true so she looked at Prue for support.

-Prue looked at her sisters, at the way Phoebe was clinging onto Piper like she was terrified, she could not understand, Phoebe was never scared of anything, much less of her. She then saw Piper look up at her from across the room, she still had that sad look in her eyes but now they were pleading with her as well, she wanted her help.

-Without even thinking about it she nodded. "Right, I would never hurt you. It's alright Phoebs"

-Hearing her nickname, made Phoebe look at her older sister for the first time. They just looked at each other for the longest time. Everybody else staring at them, trying to figure out what was going to happen. Then slowly Phoebe let go of Piper's hand.

-Piper looked at Prue. It had worked, Phoebe had trusted her. Other people might have looked at the exchange otherwise, but Piper had grown up with them, she knew what she had just seen, and that was huge. So she mouthed a thank you to Prue then left in the direction of the attic to get the book.

-While Piper was gone, silence came back in the room. Finally, Billy could not take it anymore.

-"I just wanted to say that I thought you were pretty impressive against Darius, I had never seen somebody fight like that". Billy said.

-"What are you talking about?"

-"There was this video" Paige started. Last time she had tried talking to Prue hadn't gone very well but she wanted to try again.

-"What video?" Prue asked.

-"Oh!" Paige stammered. She had no idea how much she was allowed to say.

-"The Elders, they showed us what happened the day Darius took you. We saw pretty much everything."

-"How… how did they…". She couldn't say why, but knowing that her sisters had seen everything that had happened that day made her uncomfortable.

-"They were looking for you, and well they see everything that goes on from up there, so I guess one of them later remembered seeing you and the fight. So they showed us what he had seen". Paige was trying to be as concise as she could. The less she said, the lesser chance she would say something she was not suppose to say.

-"Oh!" Prue had no idea how to process that. This had been such a weird day that the less of her concerns was the fact that the Elders were a bunch of old perverts, that was so weird.

-"Well" Billy continued. "Maybe one day, you'll show me how you were able to fight like that while keeping Piper completely safe. I found it was awesome".

-Prue remained speechless, "so they had seen that too" she thought. She had no idea how she felt about that. Luckily for her, Piper made her presence known in the room by coughing lightly. She was holding the book, but judging from the fact that she would not look at her, Prue determined that she had heard what Billy had said. She looked guilty, which almost made Prue smile. At least that was a start.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11 

-Piper walked to the middle of the room and put the book on the table. Everybody took a seat around the table. Piper started going through the book looking for Darius when they heard a persistent knock on the door.

-"You girls, keep looking I'll take care of the door". With that Leo left the room.

-It did not take long for them to find Darius in the book, since he was one of the first Demon listed. They all looked on hoping to find a very clear vanquishing spell, but sadly there was none. They were about to discuss what to do next when they heard a commotion coming from the front door. Less then 30 seconds later, Cooper barged into the room.

-"Thank god you're here I was worried". He addressed Phoebe, who's only response was to get up and go to the other end of the room.

-Cooper had had enough. For the past 10 days she hadn't said a word to him, had not acknowledge his presence in any way, and now she was running away from him. That had to stop.

-"Okay, I'm done. For the past 10 days I've been playing the comprehensive boyfriend thinking that at some point you were going to tell me what the hell is going on put now I'm done I want to know now".

-Phoebe did nothing put start playing with her sleeves, she still had not said a word.

-Suddenly Paige who like everybody else had been watching the exchange spoke up. "It's none of your business".

-"You're kidding right. I'm dating her. It's my business". He continued.

-"No it's not. It's personal. All you need to know is that she is upset and that there is not anything that you can do. I'm sure when she is ready she'll talk to you". Paige tried to resonate with him.

-"If you guys told me what is going on I could help, Phoebe always told me everything before, I just don't understand why suddenly I don't get to know what is going on in her life"

-Piper had to laugh at that. She knew it was not the time or the place, but she found the idea of Coop thinking that Phoebe told him everything hilarious.

-"What's so funny". Cooper ask. They were really starting to piss him off.

-"Nothing". It's like all the tension of the day was lifting as she laugh, she had not done that in so long. "Nothing". She had to catch her breath as everybody in the room looked at her thinking she had lost it.

-"It's just. Have you ever met Phoebe, because I'm starting to have doubts". She stopped, still smiling.

-"What are you talking about. Of course I know Phoebe. I know her better than anybody else"

-Prue watched her sister interact with the man, she was once again laughing, and Prue had no idea why, the guy seem to really care about Phoebe, and yet Piper was doing everything to antagonize him.

-"Please tell me you're kidding, because if you're not than I have no idea what is wrong with you". She started than continued more sombrely:

- "My sister doesn't talk, not about anything that hurts anyway, not to anybody. No to me and certainly not to you". Piper finished looking for a second at Phoebe who was back at staring at her shoes.

-"I don't know what you're talking about, but I won't be in a relationship where I have to go through my girlfriend's sisters to find out what upsets her, so why don't you let me talk to her alone, she will tell me what's wrong then everything will be alright."

-"I don't know if it's the cupid thing but you can't seriously be that delusional". She snorted. She continued.

-"You've alone with her how many times this week and has she said a word to you about it, or since you started dating for example, how many time has she talked to you about anything remotely painful."

- "Let me take a guess. That would be never. That's who she is, she does not talk about stuff. So all you can do is leave her alone until she's dealt with this and then she'll come back to you. But if you push, she'll run" Piper finished sadly.

-Prue had no idea what was going on, the person Piper was talking about couldn't be Phoebe it did not seem like her, but yet Phoebe herself did not look or act the way the Phoebe she remembered did so how could she know. So she just kept on watching maybe she was going to learn what the hell was going on.

-"So what I'm I supposed to do Piper just sit and watch her hurting without doing anything about it. I can't do that. There as to be one way to help her, get her to talk. I mean you're her sister how can you not do anything about this". He accused.

-Piper stood frozen for a second, what could she say to that. He was right she should have been able to do something to help her sister".

-Paige saw her sister's anguish and realize that she had had enough.

-"Look Coop, leave her alone. She's been dealing with stuff too and beside it's not the first time that Phoebe does that. Like Piper said it's what she does. There is nothing we can do about it except give her time, she'll pull through. She always does".

-"So what you're telling me is that there is nobody that can do anything to get her to talk about what is wrong with her. I don't believe that". Coop argued.

-"I did not say that." Paige replied.

-"PAIGE". Piper warned.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12 

-"You guys are hiding something from me about Phoebe and I want to know what it is? Who can help her. If it's either of you and you're not doing anything about it you guys are really heartless."

-"IT'S NOT US OK. IT'S HER". Paige screamed pointing directly at Prue. Hearing him accuse her of not caring about her sister had pulled her over the edge.

-"Shut up Paige". Piper spoke. "Leave her out of this".

-Meanwhile, Cooper was looking at Prue wondering why Paige seemed to think that she could make Phoebe better.

-"You are you? Why aren't you doing anything if you can help?". He was now standing a couple feet in front of Prue.

-Prue still had no idea what was going on. "What are you talking about?" She asked.

-"Don't play dumb do something". He accused.

-Piper had had enough the last thing they needed was for this guy to make everything worst than it already was. She quickly went over where Cooper and Prue were and stood firmly in between the two.

-It was weird. It was the closest that she had been to her big sister in over 5 years.

-"BACK OFF". She coldly said. "She's off limit". "You can yell at anybody you want but her you leave alone. YOU HEAR ME?"

-Prue was the only one here with nothing to feel guilty about, she should be the last to have to be yelled at by Cooper; Piper thought.

-From the way Piper was acting, Cooper knew that he was missing something. Piper was obviously very protective of the woman yet he had no idea who she was.

-The woman on the other side seemed as shock by Piper's action as he was which made him curious.

-"Piper I'm not playing around. Paige said that this woman can help Phoebe. So even if I have to force her to she's going to help her". He thought that was going to do it, but Piper did not move an inch.

-"Touch a hair on her head and the Elders are going to have to collect parts of you all over the world". Who did he think he was coming here threatening people.

-Cooper was about to retort something when he felt someone grab his arm violently. He turned around to find Phoebe right in front of him. Her expression was different now. Before she had looked vulnerable, now she looked angry.

-"Leave".

-She had spoken. Piper had to do a double-take to make sure that it was really Phoebe. Everybody else was as surprised as she was, including Cooper and Prue.

-"Oh honey I'm so glad you're talking to me again, We can get through this I promise". He pleaded.

-Everybody in the room noticed that it was taking a lot from Phoebe to talk as they watched her struggle to talk again.

-"I want you to leave" She said again.

-Cooper was getting desperate she was cutting him out of her life. He wanted to get her to look at him so he squeezed both of her arms with his hands. It wasn't working, she wasn't looking at him. He shook her a little trying to get her out of the daze she was in when suddenly he was flying across the room.

-He looked up to see the unknown woman with her hand up in his direction. He looked around to see that nobody was doing anything, there were just looking at her incredulously.

-Phoebe looked up to see Prue looking at her with concern in her eyes. "Are you okay Phoebs?" She asked with her hand still up.

-Phoebe gently nodded her head, while Piper kept looking from the three of them to Cooper who was clear across the room.

-She started laughing. "I always thought you had the coolest power. God do I wish I could have done that". She laughed again.

-Prue had to laugh too at that one, that Cooper guy looked so clueless. This made Phoebe smile as she slowly took a couple step back so that she was standing with Piper and Prue.

-Paige, Leo and Billy watched on as the three sisters stood together two of them laughing.

Leo noticed that it was the first time where they looked even remotely as close as the sisters he used to know.

-Cooper had no idea what was going on. He had expected the sisters to defend him and there they were laughing with HER.

-"What the hell is going on. She attacks me and you guys don't do anything about it. Isn't your job to fight demons not hang out with them?"

-Prue and Piper started laughing harder as that. This time even Paige, Billy and Leo were smiling as well.

-Piper took a break from her laughing fit. "You think she's a demon, that's hilarious."

-For someone who has spent years watching Phoebe you really are oblivious about her life. She's not a demon, and by the way, you had it coming."

-"So what don't you follow Phoebe's advice and get the hell out of here so we can get back to what we were doing". She finished.

-Cooper looked around the room trying to see if anybody was on his side and then started walking toward the door.

-Piper could not resist one last dig though. "Why don't you ask your friends the Elders who she is. They'll enlighten you."

-"But Hey!" she smilled.

-"Only because I'm nice, I'm going to give you a clue: the name's Prue. Ask around!" With that she turned around and went back toward the table so they could find a way to vanquish Darius' sorry ass and hopefully make everything okay.

-Prue looked from Piper to Phoebe. She had to say that Piper sure had taken a lot of assurance over the years. She had even defended her which she found impressive.

-Phoebe on the other side looked more vulnerable than she remembered. She knew that there was something they were not telling her, but she figured that they were going to tell her at some point.

-She looked back at Phoebe who still had not moved.

-"You're ready Phoebs?" She asked her baby sister, holding out her hand to her.

-She kept telling herself that she had every right to be mad that she should be horrible to them, they deserved it, but seeing her baby sister like that got to her, she could not hurt her more, not when she seemed to be hurting a lot already.

-Everybody in the room watched as Phoebe looked up at her sister and then at her outstretch hand.

-Piper was amazed, Prue hated them, but yet she still took care of her baby sister. That made Piper think that maybe one day Prue would be able to forgive them for what had happened.

-To everyone's surprise, a couple seconds later Phoebe took Prue's hand with her own and let her sister guide her to the couch beside Piper. The other three occupant of the room followed suite and soon enough everybody was sitting around the book.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13 

-"There's no vanquishing spell" Paige commented.

-"Well we could always make one", said Piper.

-"Well, if we do that we need to me as precise as possible in the wording, one detail wrong and we'll all be dead".

-Piper looked up at her questionably.

-"Fine ok, if this does not work then I'll be dead". Paige retorted.

-"Oh. Come on Paige I was just kidding". "Of course we need to be careful.".

-"What about taking away his powers. I mean that way if we screw up the spell then he will still be defenceless for us to try again". Billy remarked.

-"That could work. But how do we know the powers he has. I mean they don't say anything in the book plus he took some from witches". Piper commented.

-"Well Prue could help for his original powers, and the Elders could tell you about the other witches". Leo suggested.

-"NO!" Piper had objected to that before Leo had even finish his sentence. "You know when I told them we were done with them I did not mean temporarily, I meant forever. Beside, I threatened to kill them, I doubt they're willing to help". She finished.

-"They did give me Prue's address when I asked them, so I think this fight that we are having with them is more from us then them. I don't think they'll mind" Paige said.

-"Well I do". Piper argued. "I don't want them anywhere near this family again. We can do without them.".

-"Piper you're being irrational. They can help why not ask them?." Leo asked.

-"Because the last time they did something to help us they ruined our lives that's why." Piper retorted.

-"Piper I know it was wrong but you can't hold this against them forever.". Leo tried to resonate with his wife.

-"Watch me", she simple answered.

-Paige could see that this was not going anywhere so she suggested. "Why don't we vote. Yes we ask the Elders for help, No we deal with this on our own"

-"This is not a democracy", Piper answered. "It's no".

-"Piper we need to know which powers he stole from those witches for the spell to work, how do you suggest we get this information if not from the Elders, and by the way you always said that we needed to take decisions as a family". Paige retorted.

-Piper looked at Paige, then at Prue and Phoebe who were sitting beside her.

-"Look Paige, I know you want us to ask for their help but I can't do that okay. I can't put my family's faith in their hands, not ever again. I won't take that risk I just can't". She took a deep breath.

-"I also can't tell you what to do or not to do", she finished, "but if you do talk to them please be careful".

-Paige considered what Piper had just said. Part of her felt rejected. Piper had basically just told her that she could do whatever she liked, but that they would not be part of it.

-She was thrown out of her thought process by an orb that appeared in the living room.

-Piper was up her feet before the light disappeared. Soon she was face to face with the leader of the Elders.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14 

-"Get out!"

-"I heard you need our help". He responded ignoring her.

-"GET OUT". She repeated again.

-The Elder looked around the room. "Leo, long time no see, how are you doing? Oh and Prudence, happy to see you accepted to collaborate with your sisters, it is greatly appreciated.".

-Prue cringed at the comment, but she did not want to give him the benefit of an answer so she just looked away. Piper, on the other side had no problem with talking back.

-"You don't get to talk to her. Not now. Not ever again. Actually, I think I'm pretty sure we agreed that you stay out of our life forever". She stated.

-"We've been looking on things. As you can imagine, we all have a lot riding on you guys being successful, we can't afford to fail". The Elder responded.

-"Again with the 'we', there is no 'we', we're done, remember".

-"You need our help, I'm here to offer it to you".

-"And I'm telling you that we don't want it", Piper retorted.

-"Well Paige seemed to want it, don't you Paige?"

-Paige looked at him, hesitating…

-"To the other room, now". Piper said addressing the Elder.

-"I think that what we have to discuss concerns everybody in this room".

-Piper was now beyond pissed off. The guy already was not her favourite person but now he really was pushing it. She looked behind her at Prue and Phoebe and took a step sideway so to block the Elder's view of Prue.

-Leo was impressed, Piper was no longer ignoring everything like she had being doing lately, she was taking charge. Sure, the pain was still evident in her face and in her body language in general, but that was a start.

-"Piper, you have to understand that I want no harm to your family, all I want to do is help".

-"No Harm, NO HARM!!! You've got to be kidding me". "You've done nothing BUT harm my family".

-"I already have apologized about that, you have to understand that we had good intentions we only wanted what was best for…". He never got to finish his sentence, Piper punched him clear across the face.

-"DON'T! DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT". And with that she ran out of the room crying.

-As Piper was heard climbing up the stairs, Paige spoke:

-"Tell us which powers he stole then leave, Please. You've done enough damage already."

-At that Phoebe sent a menacing glare toward Paige, who considered herself lucky that Phoebe was not talking because otherwise she would have heard an earful.

-Prue did not fail to notice the glare that Phoebe sent her sister, but what intrigued her more was the fact that whenever the Elder would look at her, her sister would tighten her hold on her hand. Clearly her sisters had a lot of unresolved issues with the Elders but she still had no idea what they were, but was now pretty sure that it was about her.

-"You have a piece of paper for me to write on". The Elder asked.

-Without a word, Paige got up to fetch said piece of paper and handed it out to the Elder who started writing on it.

-When he was done, he handed the piece of paper back to Paige, then addressed Prue again,

-"I did not inquire into his other powers I figured you could inform them about those".

-"Back off. She's off limit remember".

-Paige felt bad enough going against Piper's wish, there was no way she was going to let him anywhere near Prue.

-"Now that you've given us you're precious help you should go before Piper comes back with a potion to vanquish you." Paige continued.

-"She wouldn't". The Elder started, then decided against it and just orbed out.

-"Paige I don't think this is a good idea, Piper made it clear that", Billy started.

-"I know, okay I know, but he was already here". Paige answered.

-"Well Piper's not going to like it". Billy stated.

-"I know. So Leo why don't you go get Piper so we can get this spell done".

-Leo left to get Piper, while Paige looked back at Phoebe. "I know you don't like it Phoebe but nothing happened. Everything's fine." The only response she get from Phoebe was an eye roll.

-Paige was about to say something else when Leo came back into the room. Alone.

-"Where's Piper?" asked Billy.

-"She said she wants to be alone. One step forward, one step back I guess".

-"Hum, Okay. I mean we can start the spell without her". Paige said.

-"Right.."

-They spent the next half and hour listening Prue talk about Darius's powers.

-Prue had a particularly hard time. Talking about that and in this house was almost unbearable to her. Prue thought Phoebe felt particularly guilty because let go of her hand pretty early on. Everybody listened as Prue listed powers. They all noticed that Prue was being very clinical about this, avoiding at all cost the fact that he had used those powers on her for months in her account.

-As she talked, Paige took note. While Phoebe again was back at looking anywhere but at Prue. Leo and Billy, who were the innocent bystander in all this looked on waiting to see if their help was going to be needed.

-As she was done listing Darius's powers, Prue felt exhausted both mentally and physically. "Do you guys mind if I go take a walk or something I need the fresh air".

-Leo looked at Paige then Phoebe and then nodded.

-As Prue was almost out the door, Paige spoke. "Do you want anybody to go with you, so you don't get lost".

-She knew she had said something stupid the moment Prue froze on her way to the door.

-"No thank you. I did grow up here. But you wouldn't remember I forgot you weren't there". And with that she was out the door.

-When they heard the door close, Billy started laughing. "Did you really had to say that". She asked Paige.

-"I forgot"

-"Well that probably did not help you win many points", laughed Billy.

-Paige sighed. "Hum, Phoebe. Do you think you could start working on the spell, that's more your area".

-Phoebe nodded, then took the piece of paper and walked out to the kitchen to work on the spell.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 15 

-The rest of the afternoon was spent pretty fast. Piper spent all of it in her room, while Prue stayed outside enjoying the city she had missed so much.

-Phoebe was working on the spell, Paige and Billy were gathering supplementary information on Darius from the Book in case they needed it, while Leo decided to go spend some times with the boys. He needed out of the tension for a while and beside the girls did not seem to need him that much.

-Soon enough came dinner time and Paige and Billy were starving. They came barging into the kitchen looking for the take-out menus.

-Paige addressed Phoebe. "W. were going to order take-out, you want anything?"

-Phoebe looked up at them. "Sure". She was still in deep concentration over her spell and did not even notice the astonishment in their faces at her actually speaking. That did not last long however.

-"Cool, I'll go ask Piper if she wants anything." With that she was gone only to return a couple minutes.

-"Piper's not hungry, oh and she's pissed at me about the Elders".

-"Well you knew it was coming", answered Billy.

-"Do you think Prue wants something I mean she has not eaten since she got here and well it what like 5 hours later for her, she must be starving". She commented next.

-"Well she's not here and I have no idea what she likes. Phoebe, any suggestion?"

-Phoebe looked up at her sister, and Paige could see her put up her wall literally in front of her. She did move though, she stood up and walk up to Billy, who was holding the take-out menus, she slowly goes through them.

-Then she takes one and hands it out to Paige who simply looks at it.

-"Vietnamese, I haven't eaten that kind of food in forever. Billy what do you think?"

-"Sure".

-Paige left to make the order and came back a couple minutes later with a perplexed expression on her face.

-"What?", asked Billy.

-"Well, we still need to find Prue. It's been hours she could be back in Spain for what we know." Paige said.

-"Can't you use your Whitelighter powers to find her, I mean you can always find tour sisters or me, why not her?" Billy questioned.

-"I tried. I guess the connection id not strong enough, maybe it would work if I had something of her", she guessed.

"What about Phoebe?" Billy stated.

-At that Phoebe's head shot up.

-"What are you talking about Billy?" Queried Paige.

-"You said maybe you could sense her if you had something of hers. Well Phoebe is something of hers. I mean did you not see it earlier, they had this connection thingy".

-"Maybe it could work" With that she stepped closer to Phoebe.

-"Want to give it a try?" She asked her sister.

-Phoebe simply nodded and gave her hand to her sister. Paige concentrated trying to connect to Prue through Phoebe. It took her a couple minute but suddenly she felt her. She opened her eyes and looked at Phoebe, she released her hand.

-"I got her I'll be right back." She hesitated. "Unless you want to come" she addressed Phoebe.

-Phoebe quickly went back to concentrating on her spell, which Paige took as a 'no' and orbed out to find her sister.

-Paige looked around, this place was not familiar to her, she'd been in this city forever and this park was completely unknown to her. She scanned the area looking for Prue and finally found her looking over a small lake. She walked up to her.

-"Hey." Prue looked sideway at her.

-"Hi." At least she had not told her to leave that was a plus in Paige's opinion.

-"We figured you might be hungry, since we all were starving, well except Piper, so we ordered Vietnamese. Want some?"

-Prue looked quizzically at her.

-"Phoebe's suggestion." Paige mentioned.

-"Oh!" Prue would not admit it, but part of her was thrilled that Phoebe still remembered that sort of thing.

-"You still like it right? I mean, cause if you don't we can always order something else". Paige babbled. Call her desperate, but she really wanted Prue to like her.

-"Yeah, of course. I'm just surprised that's all", she confessed. "So how did you find me? Whitelighter mojo?"

-"Yes and no. I try but I couldn't sense you. I could through Phoebe though".

-"I don't understand"

-"I can usually sense my charges Piper and Phoebe pretty easily because of the connection. You and me though are not there quite yet. You and Phoebe though are. I focused on that connection you guys have and here we have." She finished.

-"That's cool". Prue said. She had no idea what she was supposed to say. She had to say she was impressed that they were able to find her through one of her sisters.

-"So you coming?"

-"Yeah . I am starving." With that she took Paige's hand and both of them orbed out.

-They appeared back in the Halliwell kitchen a minute later.

-Prue looked around. "That is a cool power" she said to Paige who smiled, that had to be to nicest thing Prue had said to her all day.

-"So where did you go?" Asked Billy.

-"Hum, I went to the park." At that Phoebe's head shot up and she looked at her sister.

-Prue saw that and volunteered more information. "It's the park where we used to go growing up. I hadn't been there in so long." She finished sadly.

-Phoebe automatically went back to her spell. Seeing that pain in her sister's eyes was just to much for her.

"So how's the spell going", Prue asked.

-"Phoebe's still working on it", answered Paige. Prue looked at her sister who still was staring at the sheet of paper in front of her like it held the mystery of life.

-"Well if you need any help. I haven't done spell in years but if I can help." she was looking at Phoebe but got no reaction at all from her sister.

-Less then 10 minute later, the food arrived and the girls were getting ready to sit at the table. Prue had these butterfly feelings in her stomach, being in this house really was starting to get its toll on her. She should not be felling like this she kept telling herself, she had left voluntarily, she did not want to be here. As much as kept telling herself that the felling still wasn't going away.

-She looked around. "What about Piper, is she going to eat", she asked,

-"She says she's not hungry", answered Billy. "She's all freaked out again", she continued.

-"Billy", reprimanded Paige.

-"What! She was doing fine all morning and now she's back to where she was yesterday".

-Without saying a word Prue got up and went up the stairs toward her sister's bedroom. As she progressed toward the room, she noticed that things had changed, there were children's toys everywhere and family pictures on the wall. "So Piper had sons", she commented to herself. "Good for her". She then stopped in front of the only closed door, Piper's room and stopped. She had no idea what she was doing or even why she was there in the first place, but she just needed to know what was going on.

-Finally she found the courage to knock on the door.

-"Paige leave it alone okay, I'm not hungry". Piper had enough . She had no idea what everybody's problem was if she wanted to wallow in self-pity it was her choice. She thought Paige had left, when suddenly she heard someone speaking.

-"It's me". Prue said. She tried with all her heart to sound as distant as possible.

-Piper almost stopped breathing for a second. "Prue????" She leaped to the door.

-Piper opened the door to realized that she was right it was indeed Prue.

-The two just stood there staring at each other, until Prue couldn't take the silence anymore.

-"What is going on?" She asked her sister

-Piper hesitated. "What do you mean?"

-"You guys are hiding something from me. Don't think I don't know because I do. I'm risking my life here, the less you can do is tell me what is going on.". She paused. "Unless that's the plan. You want to finish the job or something. Is Darius even alive or did you just made it up." Prue accused. The idea of being betrayed by her sisters again made her furious.

-Piper just stood there not knowing what to say. She just could not believe that Prue could think such things.

-When she saw that her sister was not saying anything, Prue assumed that she was indeed right about her sisters.

-"You know what I knew it. You guys are cowards if you wanted me dead all you had to do was find me and send any of your demon friends my way, you did not have to come up with all this or are you just enjoying watching me suffered, you must have missed that the first time around.".

-Prue was in tears now. "Screw that, I'm out of here. If you want me dead you're going to have to kill me yourself". Prue took out toward the stairs.

-When she saw her sister take off, Piper suddenly woke up from her daze. She could not let Prue leave, not like that, so she ran after her.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 16 

The girls were downstairs enjoying their dinner when suddenly they saw Prue running down the stairs with Piper close behind her.

-"PRUE!!PRUE STOP. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK JUST STOP!!"

-"why so you can come up with a more subtle way to kill me no thanks".

-Hearing that Paige, Phoebe and Billy all ran toward the door to stop Prue.

-"What the hell is going on?" Ask Paige.

-"Well I figured out your plan and I decided that I've let them ruin my life once already, it's not happening again." Prue was still in tears which was making it difficult for her to talk, but she nonetheless continued.

-"What did I ever do to you? You guys were my life. I would have given up anything for you, and I did. For what? To have you guys turn on me. I took it without doing anything. I just left. I left everything I ever knew and that's still not enough for you. Well I'm done. I'm going to fight this time". She was at the door now her hand on the handle when Paige intervened.

-She looked at her sister. Piper was now in tears sitting on the last step of the stairs, while Phoebe just looked at Prue with an expression of pure terror on her face and was holding onto the wall like it was the only thing stopping her from collapsing on the floor.

-"Just wait. I don't know why you think that we want you dead but that is nowhere near the realm of possibility." Paige intervened.

-"Well Piper did not deny it and since she happened to be there, UNLIKE YOU. I'm going to go with that". Prue had no idea why she was still there except for the fact that Billy was now standing firm between her and the door therefore blocking her exit.

-"Well I have no idea what Piper's been smoking but I can promised you that you dead is the last thing either of them want. And you have to believe me on that because I WAS THERE." Paige repeated Prue's word. She had no idea where Prue had gotten that idea but there was no way in hell she was going to let her leave like that, it would just destroy her sisters.

-"I didn't" Piper finally said. Her voice was so small that Prue barely heard it. "I don't want you dead. God knows I don't want you dead" she then said with a little more assurance.

-Prue just looked at Piper trying to figure out if she was lying. She used to be able to read her sisters like a book but now she had no idea if she could trust her instinct or not.

-Finally she spoke: "If this is not a plan to finish what you started 5 years ago then what the hell are you guys hiding from me?" She could not take it anymore. All this pain it was eating at her.

-Phoebe had yet to say a word, hell she had not move an inch this whole time Paige remarked. As for Piper, Paige could see her trying but no word seem to come out of her mouth. She decided that she had had enough of this whole thing.

-"You want to know what they are hiding from you I'm going to tell you". Paige started.

-"Don't". Pier pleaded.

-"Piper, I know that you and Phoebe think that you deserve to be punish or something, but having our sister think that you want her dead is way past punishment, I won't just stand here and let you destroy yourself I won't. So you tell her or I will."

-Paige knew it was unfair to give her sister an ultimatum, but enough was enough. She had no idea how her sisters were going to be able to live if they had to do it thinking that their sister thought they wanted her dead."

-She looked from Piper to Phoebe again none of them making eye contact. They both look terrified, so Paige started.

-"They didn't know, we didn't know up until 10 days ago" She started.

-"You did not know what?" Prue looked around. It was clear that her sisters were scared of her knowing the truth but she had no idea why.

-Paige took a deep breath. "That you were alive. They thought you died that day, the day Darius took you. All that you think happened after that was a lie the Elders created. Piper and Phoebe had no idea you were held hostage. For them you were dead. They saw your body. Well, what was supposed to be your body." She looked up at Prue and realized that she had now her full attention.

-"That's the reason they have been so out of it, they feel guilty for not knowing, for not figuring it out".

-"Paige". Piper implored. "Please don't".

-"I'm sorry Piper. I know you did not want her to know, but she has to, she deserves to, and so do you guys."

-Prue looked from Paige to her sisters. This could not be possible, there was just no way. But her sisters they just looked so broken.

-"It…it can't be. The Elders… they told me that…" Prue started.

-"They lied. They left you to die down there and when you got out they did not know what to do with you, so they found a way to make you disappear. And having you hate your sisters was the best way to do that."

-"That's why we're not on good terms with them. They lied to you, they lied to us, and the only reason they even decided to tell us the truth now was because they knew we would need you to vanquish Darius." She finished.

-Prue was speechless, she had no idea if this was the truth. She decided to try and test her instincts.

-"Piper, Piper look at me. Please. I need to know." She pleaded with her sister.

-Piper heard her sister and she knew exactly what she was doing, Prue always could tell when her or Phoebe were lying to her. She was lost part of her wanted to tell everything to Prue and beg her to forgive her, but the other part was convinced that somehow she deserved all the pain that she was feeling at the moment.

-"Piper, Please Piper look at me." Prue appealed again.

-Piper was all intent on not looking at Prue until she saw Phoebe with the corner of her eyes. Phoebe needed Prue so much, she could not take that away from her, not again. So she finally met her sister's gaze.

-"It's true, it's all true. I'm so sorry Prue. I'm just so sorry." She cried.

-The moment she met Piper's gaze she knew, before she even spoke she knew. It was all true. Prue felt like her head was spinning. It had all been a lie.

-"Why? Why?" She cried. "What did I ever do to them?".

-"They…. They never told us why. All they did was told us that they had to make a choice between you and me. They thought that the power of three will be destroyed if the four of us ever ended in the same place. Guess they were wrong about that". Paige added bitterly. "They thought they had a choice to make and that they chose me. Believe me when I tell you, I've been dying to know why." She finished.

-Paige looked up at Prue and then added: "Actually, why don't we ask them now. You deserve to know why they ruin your life, and so do we".

-She did not even let Prue or her sisters the chance to say anything before she started calling the Elders. In less then 2 minutes one had appeared in the room. They must have been close by thought Prue.

-She watched her sisters. They were clearly not comfortable with the Elder in the room. Actually, Piper who looked like she was about to break 5 minutes ago was now firmly on her feet and she looked like she was ready to kill the Elder if he blinked. Phoebe also looked different, she had stepped closer to Piper and look ready to attack if anything were to happened. If she had not known that the Elders were the good guys she might have took them for demons judging from how her sisters were acting toward him.

-"What can I do for you this time". The Elder asked.

-Paige again was the one that spoke. "We want to know why?"

-"Why what?" The Elder responded.

-"Why me? Why not her?" Paige started. "Why did you let her die, why did you not get rid of me instead, I mean she's stronger, and all?"

-The Elder nervously looked around the room. They had told her. He had no idea what he was suppose to do now.

-"I don't know what you mean". He thought maybe playing dumb might work but obviously he was wrong.

-"Don't even try that". Paige continued. "We deserve to know, why you played with our lives."

-"It was for the best. That's why we did it.". The Elder started.

-"Who's best" intervened Piper venomously.

-"Everyone's best."

-"Well certainly not mine", cut in Prue.

-"It was a sacrifice we had to make. You said it yourself countless time that you would do anything for your sisters, consider that we did that for them."

-"You're kidding right? Please tell me you're kidding." Piper was confused; He could not seriously say that they did that for them there was no way. "If you would have been thinking about us even in the slightest you wouldn't have taken away the only thing that ever mattered to us."

-"We did not take it away Piper"

-"DID NOT TAKE IT AWAY. DID NOT TAKE IT AWAY. THIS IS A JOKE. YOU SAW HOW HARD IT WAS FOR US WITHOUT HER. YOU KNEW THAT WE COULD GET HET BACK AND YOU DID NOTHING, NOTHING"

-"You have to understand that it was not an easy solution. We made a choice"

-"Why?" This time it was Prue who had spoken.

-"For the power of three. Don't get me wrong. You are a very powerful witch, but you protectiveness was becoming a problem. You were taking unnecessary risks to keep your sisters form harm's way. This was weakening the power of three. With Paige things were different. They worked more as a team of witches then as sisters who needed to protect each other and it made them better. That's why we chose Paige; because it was what was best for the Power of Three". The Elder finished.

-Prue just stood there frozen. They had left her to die because she had been a good sister.

-Apparently Phoebe had reached the same conclusion because she advanced toward the Elder and stopped right in front of him.

-"Do you even care that you ruined my life in the process? DO YOU?"

-When the Elder did not say anything back Phoebe just ran up the stairs. Everybody knew she had reached her destination when they heard the door bang shut.

-Piper looked from Prue to the Elder over and over again until her too could not take it anymore. "I hope it was worth it", and with that she too ran up the stairs and into her room slamming the door when she reached it.

-Paige just stood there. Ever since she had found out that the Elder had chosen to keep her over Prue she had wandered why, but she never imagined that they had left Prue to die because she loved her sisters more then anything, that just didn't make sense.

-Prue was telling herself exactly the same thing. For 5 years she had thought that all of this had happened to her because her sisters did not care, but now it turned out that it had all happened because the Elders had judged that she loved her sisters too much to be effective as witches. She had no idea how she was suppose to take that.

-"The elder looked at Prue. "You have to understand, we had no other way. If we would have told your sisters about you there was no way they would have just let you go. They probably would have gotten themselves killed trying to get you back. We did what we thought was best for them and for the people they were meant to protect."

-"You made me believe that they wanted me dead. Do you have any idea how that felt? DO YOU?" She could not take it anymore, it was like all the pain that she had accumulated in the last five years was all coming back at the same time, she felt like she was going to past out. "I need to go", she said out of breath.

-"Take my room, well your old room. Take all the time you need." Paige told her.

-Prue murmured a thanks and then difficultly made her way upstairs and into her old room.

-Downstairs, Billy and Paige were left with the Elder who looked sadly toward the stairs.

-"They need to get over this, you guys need to vanquish Darius". The Elder said.

-"You don't get to give us orders remember. We'll handle your demon when we're all ready not one minute before. Now you should go". Paige concluded. She just wanted him out of here.

-He looked at her worryingly and then without another word orbed out of the room.

-Paige and Billy looked at each other.

-"So this family dinner thing. It went well", Billy sarcastically said before the two of them headed back to the kitchen. They figured the girls probably needed sometime alone.

-Paige and Billy waited the rest of the evening for the girls to come down but at some point gave up and decided to meet back at the manor in the manor.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17 

-The next morning, Paige came in to see Billy calmly sitting at the kitchen table sniffling through the Book of Shadows while drinking her coffee.

-"So did any of them come down yet?" She asked the young woman.

-"No. I've been here 2 hours and I haven't heard a peep".

-"Well, I'm going to go see how they're doing". She left in the direction of the stairs.

-She tried Piper's door, but without much of a surprise it was locked. When Paige knocked Piper told her to leave her alone. She went to check on Phoebe but again she came across a locked door, but this time she got no answer. She guessed that Phoebe was still sleeping and proceeded on going back downstairs until she passed in front of her old room, where Prue was staying now. She decided to check up on her as well, maybe she needed something.

-She just assumed that the door was going to be locked so she was the first to be surprised when the door opened after she turned the knob.

-When Prue heard the door, she looked in the direction of the door to see probably the last person she expected.

-"Hum… Sorry, I just wanted to see how you were doing with everything". Paige babbled.

-"Why?" Prue asked surprised.

-"Hum. Well it must be a lot to digest and I wanted to know if there was anything that I could do?"

-"No. I mean why do you care?"

-"Oh". "Well, look I know you don't like me and I can only imagine why, I mean in your head I must be the reason why your sisters did not go looking for you, but I always wanted to meet you."

-"I just don't know what to think", Prue hesitated. "I've spent all night trying to separate what is true from what isn't." She stopped.

-It was silent between the two girls until Paige decided that it was now or ever.

-"You know, I resented you at first", she started.

-Prue only looked up at her quizzically.

-"I mean one day I'm a normal girl and next thing I know some demon try to kill me, I learn that I'm a witch and that I have sisters who are witches as well." "It was a lot to take in, but part of me was thrilled. I grew up as an only child and my parents were dead, so part of me was happy to finally have a family."

-"But Piper and Phoebe, they did not want me there, they wanted you. They needed me, not because I was their sister, but because I could complete the power of three, and they needed it to get revenge for your death."

-"I'm not complaining, they were nice and everything…"

-"But", Prue interrupted.

-"But I felt like a replacement, like the only reason I was there was because they could not have you. I felt like this for so long."

-"I don't think you know how much of an impact you had on them. You were this overwhelming presence over my head, something I could never be. All I heard at first was how perfect you were. Whatever I did you had done better, faster, sooner, I felt like I could not catch a break."

-"That was until I realized that they did not want me to be you, they did not want me to replace you, nobody could. All they wanted was for me to be me".

-"They don't talk about you much, they never have, I guess because it hurts or because they did not want me to feel inferior. But I've always been curious about you so sometimes I'd ask Leo questions about you, about how they were before you died, that sort of thing."

-Prue still had not said a word. So Paige continued.

-"I guess what I'm trying to say is that this whole thing as been hard on everybody. I wish that you would give me a chance, but if you can't then one day you will."

-With that she proceeded to leave the room, but was stopped by Prue.

-"Wait!" Paige turned around. "You really love them, my sisters, well our sisters I mean."

-"Of course, they're family". Paige returned.

-"Then okay. For them, I guess it's the least I can do." "So want to tell me about yourself." Prue asked Paige.

-Paige stayed stunned there for a second. Wait Prue wanted to talk to her, really. Finally she snapped back to reality. "Of course", she stated happily and for the next hour her and Prue talked about all sorts of thing until there was a knock on the door and Billy appeared.

-"Oh, sorry. It's just you've been a long time Paige and I thought that…nothing"

-She was about to leave the room when Prue spoke. "Hey Billy want to stay and talk"

-"What?" To say that she was surprised is an understatement.

-"I haven't really been nice to you and I thought I could make it up"

-"Yeah sure", and with that she joined Paige and Prue on the bed and the three of them talked about random things until Paige noticed that Prue was no longer paying attention.

-"Prue. Are you ok? You were kind of out there for a second".

-"Sorry. I was just thinking"

-"About what, if it's okay to ask", enquired Billy.

-"Piper and Phoebe.", she looked out the window. "They're not doing so well with all this, are they?" She asked Paige.

-"No, no they're not, but it goes much farther then that", Paige new she was in risky territory, it was the first time that Prue had enquired about her sisters, and maybe Paige's only chance to get her to do something about it.

-"What do you mean?" Prue was becoming nervous, she did not like the saddened expression that plagued her sister's face.

-"They don't deal with things very well, not when it comes to you", she started.

"Leo told me once", she continued, "that who they are now and who they were before you disappeared are two different things. I could not tell you because I did not now them before, but I guess you can see they changed."

-"Why?" Prue asked with a sad air.

"Your death, disappearance, or whatever we choose to call it. It changed them."

-"I remember when we first met, I found it so weird how they dealt with your death so differently. I mean Piper was a mess, she cried, she screamed, she went on a vengeance killing spree, while Phoebe was the complete opposite. I first I thought that everything was fine, that it did not have that much of an effect on her, but that changed once I got to now her better. I realized that it was just a façade. She would appear perfectly happy one second and the next I would see this look in her eyes, this pain. But then I soon as it had appeared it was gone. That's when I realized the difference, Piper let all the pain out, while Phoebe kept all of it in."

-"We tried, me, Leo and Piper; to get her to open up, to talk about how she felt, but it was useless. She just shut down, and walked away. She's been doing that ever since, whenever something hurts her, she shuts down and walks away from it all, then she comes back and pretend that everything's fine." Paige stopped to look a her sister to see how she was taking things.

-"They love me? They missed me?", she asked incredulous.

-"How can you even ask that. Of course they love you. Losing you is the worst thing that ever happened to them". Paige mentioned.

-"But why are they avoiding me then?" She asked Paige.

-"They haven't told me. As you can tell, neither of them is really in talking mood, but I'm pretty sure they feel guilty. They think that they should have known that you weren't dead, that you needed their help. In short, they feel like they let you down, that this is their fault that they should be punished, which is why they did not want to tell you anything. Having you hate them makes it easier on them, it's a punishment." She finished sadly.

-The room was silent for a couple minutes until Prue stood up.

-"What are you doing", asked Paige.

-"I'm putting a stop to this", and with that she opened the door and stopped in front of Piper's door. When she realized that the door was locked she looked back at Paige who stood beside her.

-"Get me in there please"

-"Hum, I don't know, Piper hates it when I orb in her bedroom." Paige answered nervously.

-Prue only looked at her with a I don't care look that made Paige change her mind. "Ok, but this is on you". Billy decided that she wanted to see as well so just as Paige was about to orb she grabbed her other hand.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 18 

-Piper was in her room with her face in her pillow when she felt something familiar, an orb. She turned around ready to yell at Paige for not respecting her privacy when she noticed that Paige was not alone, Prue was with her.

-The two sisters stared at each other, each waiting to see who was going to speak first. Finally, Prue decided that she probably would have to start if they ever were going to do this.

-"I don't hate you". She started.

-At that Piper started to turn away from her sister going back to putting her face in her pillow. She could not hear that, she was going to break down and she couldn't do that.

-Prue took a couple step and sat on the edge of the bed close to Piper.

-"Piper look at me, please". When she saw that Piper was not bulging she spoke again.

-"I don't hate you, I never could. God knows I tried. I kept telling myself that I should hate you that you deserved it. But you know what, I never could. You want to know why. Because I love you. You and Phoebe, I love you guys so much that no matter what I thought you did to me I could not stop loving you, much less hating you."

-Prue stopped for a second when she heard Piper's muffled crying.

-"I did not hate you then and I don't hate you know. I can't because what happened to me, it wasn't your fault…" She did not get to finish.

-"STOP! DON'T LIE TO ME OKAY. I KNOW IT'S MY FAULT. IT'S MY FAULT AND YOU HATE ME BECAUSE OF IT". Piper screamed sitting up to face Prue.

-"I love you", Prue said it again so lightly that Paige and Billy barely heard it. "I love you, and if you think that you need forgiveness for not knowing than I'm giving it to you. I love you Piper and I forgive you". It was all it took Piper. She threw herself in her sister's arms and cried.

-Prue hugged her, letting her cry, murmuring comforting words in her ear. Just letting her get it all out.

-Meanwhile, Paige and Billy stood there in shock. For them seeing Piper this upset was rare and they did not know what to do of themselves so they just stayed there rooting in one place watching Piper cry in her sister's arms. From time to time they would hear a 'sorry' or an 'I love you' from Piper, but for the longest time it was just crying. Piper was letting out all the tears that she had refused to let out since she had found out about what had really happened to Prue.

-When Piper had calmed down her and Prue started talking.

-"I missed you so much", Piper started.

-"I missed you too"

-"We should have known, we should have looked for you harder, I mean we tried to bring you back but we could have tried other spells too, we did not try had enough…"

-"Stop, You need to stop this. I'm not angry, not anymore. I know that if you would have known, you would have come for me. I'm not saying that I'm not confused because I am. It's probably going to take me a while to fully forgive you. Not that I don't want to. I know that it is not your fault that you did not know but…"

-"It doesn't take the pain away", Piper finished sadly.

-"Yeah. I'm trying. I keep telling myself that I need to let it go, but I guess it is harder than I thought. I'm going to need time to deal with all of that, time on my own." She paused, "But I don't want to go, not until I know that you and Phoebe are okay with everything."

-"I, I get it. Take all the time you need. But, hum, your going to come back right?" She added.

-"Thanks, and of course I'm going to come back, I just need to process everything."

-Piper was still holding tight onto her sister when Paige suddenly interrupted.

-"What about Phoebe?"

-Prue and Piper looked up at Paige.

-"She needs you", Piper said, "she needs you so much".

-"What happened", Prue asked her sister, "She looks so different".

-Piper took awhile to compose herself and then spoke up. "I failed her, that's what happened.". "I failed her and I failed you". Piper had now started to cry again.

-"You did not fail anybody", Prue intervened.

-"Yes I did. I failed her as a big sister. I should have been there, but I wasn't and when I realized it, it was too late."

-"What do you mean" Prue softly asked her sister, she knew that refuting her was not going to work Piper needed to let all of it out.

-"I was so angry and so sad after you… I let her to take care of everything. She had to help Paige learn about magic, she had to come demon hunting with me so I wouldn't get myself killed. I was so angry at you, the last thing I wanted was to be the big sister so Phoebe was forced to take over. She went from being the baby to being the responsible one so fast. I guess she did not have time to deal with everything, it became easier for her to focus on all that needed to be done then to deal with losing you, so I guess she didn't"

-Piper took a deep breath. "When I was finally ready to take my responsibilities, it was too late, she had completely shut down. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get to her, I couldn't make her talk about what had happened. I knew she was pushing everything down, I saw her do it. She would get this look in her eyes and then she would close her eyes for a second or two and then it was gone. When I tried to talk to her about it, if I pushed she would just say she was fine and take off and then she would come back hours later and pretend nothing happened."

-"After awhile it became easier just to leave it. I thought that with time it would get better, but it didn't. She started dealing with everything bad that happened to her that way, no matter how big. She just shut down and avoided us when it was harder to keep herself in check."

-"I should have done something earlier, if I had done something earlier, maybe I could have helped. Now she's unreachable. She's miserable and there's nothing I can do about it." She finish slowly, her head hung in shame.

-"You did your best Piper, it's all anybody can ask of you. And you did not let me down."

-"Yes I did. I keep telling myself that none of that would have happened if it would have been me instead of you. You would never have left Phoebe go that far into herself you would have figured everything out and you would have made everything okay. Like you always do". Piper's eyes were starting to water again so Piper kissed her forehead and then got up.

-"What are you doing?" Piper asked her emotions back in check.

-"I'm going to make everything ok", she smiled at Piper. "I'm going to talk to Phoebe", she added.

-"Eh! Do you have a plan. Cause she's not just going to come out and tell you everything." Added Paige.

-Prue paused and looked at Paige for a second. She was about to explain when Piper chimed in.

-"Actually! She just might." She looked at Paige who seemed confused.

-"Phoebe and Prue have this thing. Phoebe always tells Prue everything."

-"I don't get it", said Paige.

-"Hum! Sorry. It started when Phoebe was 4 or 5", started Piper looking at Prue with a smile.

-"Phoebe, well she was a terror, and one day she pushed this kid of the swing, and well he got hurt. None of us knew anything about it until the kids mom came over and told grams. I remember we were all in the playroom and grams start yelling about how some parent came complaining about one of us hurting her son and about she wanted to know who did it. Prue and I we knew it was Phoebe, but Prue she looked at Phoebe and for some reason confessed. She told grams that she was the one who had pushed the kid. Let's just say that there was a whole lot of yelling after that."

-Paige looked at Prue, "Why? Why did you did it". One again Piper answered for her.

-"I'm coming to that. So after grams gone and Prue is grounded for like forever. Phoebe looked at Prue and she asked why. So Prue looks at her and said "because you're my little sister, I'm always going to protect you". So then Phoebe jumped at her to hug her and Prue adds that there is a condition, that she'll always have her back as long as Phoebe always came to her first and did not hide anything from her. So then Phoebe promised and they made this weird childhood pact thing, and after that no matter what happened Phoebe would always go to Prue whenever she needed help."

-"The pact wasn't weird", Prue objected feigning insulted.

-"That's so cool", confessed Billy.

-"Yeah! Gods knows Phoebe and Prue did not always get along but whenever something was wrong she would always go to Prue before anyone else, they would talk and then if Phoebe needed help; Prue would help her or if she just needed advice then Phoebe would make a decision once Prue had helped he put things in perspective."

-"So you think this is going to work?" Enquired Paige.

-"Well this is worth a shot", said Prue and with that she walked in the direction of Phoebe's room.

-"Humm! Paige, The door's lock could you." She did not have time to finish her sentence Paige was already in front of her offering her hand.

-They orbed out while Piper and Billy waited in the Hallway. When the door opened Piper could see something was wrong.

-"She's not there!" Paige said.

-"What do you mean she's not there?" Piper was starting to panic as she pushed through the door. She looked inside and realized that Phoebe really wasn't there. The bed did not even looked like it had been slept in.

-"God, where is she?" Asked Piper worried.

-"I'll check her place", said Paige before orbing out.

-Minutes later she was back. "She's not there", she stated nervously.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 19 

-"We'll find her", Prue tried to calmed down a frantic Piper.

-"What if we don't. God, I'm such a failure. I should have never left her out of my sight", complained Piper as Prue was nervously waiting for Paige and Billy to orb in. They had gone looking for Phoebe half and hour ago. Paige said she could sense her but it was not that clear so the two of them had gone hopping that they would find her.

-Prue was about to answer her sister when the girls orbed back in.

-"We found her", proudly stated Billy.

-Prue looked at Piper reassuringly before looking back at Paige. "Let's go."

-"Hum! I don't think it's such a good idea I mean she…" Paige said nervously.

-"Paige whatever it is it doesn't matter we're going to go there and bring her back", added Piper decisively. There was no way she was going to let Phoebe out of her sight a second longer.

-Paige looked between her sisters wanting to tell them that it would be better if they waited for Phoebe to come back, but from both of their face she could see that it was not an option, so she orbed them to where they had found Phoebe, hoping that this was going to go well.

-The moment they got there Piper froze. They were at the cemetery, and not any cemetery, they were at the cemetery, the one Piper and Phoebe avoided at all cost, the one where their sister was supposedly buried.

-Piper looked at her other sister who was looking around searching for Phoebe, she did not seem that affected Piper noted and then she thought, "Well how would she, she has no idea where we are". Piper looked accusingly at Paige, she could have given them a warning or something.

-Prue could not see Phoebe but when she turned around she saw that Piper was as white as a sheet while the other looked uncomfortable to the limit.

-"I can't see her. Piper what's going on, you don't look so good."

-"I know where she is", she said without taking her eyes off of a particular corridor. "I just don't think you should…"

-"Come on Piper it is only a cemetery, it's not going to stop me. Beside how do you know where she is I don't see her anywhere." She questioned.

-The other three looked between themselves until Piper who had yet to look away from said corridor spoke.

-"It's not any cemetery. It's", she took a deep breath, "It's where we buried you. That's how I know where she is. But, we, we never come here, it's too painful. I don't understand what she would be doing here".

-Prue took this in. They had buried her, or more so the shapeshifting version of herself in this cemetery and now Phoebe was here. She wanted to get out of here as fast as she could, and from the looks of it so did Piper, but she couldn't, she had to get Phoebe so she took Piper's hand.

-"Show me".

-Piper considered it for a second before she diligently guided her sister toward the corridor that would lead them to the place where they had buried Prue. The other two followed closely behind.

-After a couple minutes Piper stopped in front of a room, she opened the door and then pointed an area to the right of the room. "There". And there she was, Phoebe. She was sitting on a bench facing a wall of tombstone.

-Prue followed Piper's eyes and she saw it, the tombstone with her name on it. "Prue Halliwell- Beloved sister", she tried to look away but she always came back to it and it was making her uncomfortable. She was pretty sure that normal people did not come face to face with their own tomb that often.

-She took a deep breath. She could do that. All she had to do was focus on Phoebe and forget about seeing her name on that damn wall. "Well that was easier said than done", she thought. Finally she let go of Piper's hand and started toward Phoebe who did not appear to have any idea that they were there because she had not moved an inch yet. She noticed that Piper, Paige and Billy were walking behind her, but somehow that did not make her feel better. As she got closer, she realized that they had stopped at a reasonable distance, they probably were giving her space to talk to Phoebe, so she kept going on her own.

-She stopped right behind her, she thought that Phoebe would have realized her presence already but apparently she hadn't so Prue considered her next move. The last thing she wanted was to scare her off. She carefully put her hand on her sister's shoulder, hoping not to frightened her, but Phoebe had the opposite reaction. Without even looking up she turned her body and buried her face in her sister's torso. She hugged her tight and started crying. There was so much pain in her cries that her body was trembling all over, so Prue put her arms around her as best as she could, they were not really in the best position to be hugging.

-The other three started moving closer. They wanted to hear what was going on. They stopped about 3 feet from Prue and Phoebe and watched. Phoebe was holding onto Prue so tights that Billy was pretty sure that Prue was going to need CPR really soon, but Prue did not bulge. She held onto her baby sister and kissed her hair, not once did she say anything, she just held her.

-Paige was surprised, she did not think a single human being could shed that many tears at one. Phoebe had been crying none stop for over an hour now and only started calming down. It took another 10 minutes before Phoebe was done crying completely.

-"Why don't I take you home?" Prue asked Phoebe.

-She saw her sister hesitate and look back and forth between her other sisters and the wall with Prue's tombstone.

-"We need to talk, but I'd rather not do it here if you don't mind." Prue ask her sister.

-"Talk?" It was clearly the last thing she wanted to do.

-"Phoebe, you need to talk about things. You clearly aren't alright, you haven't been in a long time. I've let you run away from this for too long, mostly because I've been running away from this for too long. I'm not doing that anymore, and neither are you." Piper stated moving to stand beside Prue.

-"Piper", Phoebe pleaded with her sister.

-"Phoebe, it's been long enough, you need to confront this." Piper confronted her sister.

-"What, what if I'm not strong enough?" She sadly asked her sister.

-"I'll be there, Prue's going to be there. You could always talk to her, maybe she can help." Piper looked at her older sister reassuringly.

-"Why, why would she? She hates us now, she hates me." Phoebe finished sadly, refusing to look at Prue.

-"Okay, I'll say it again. I don't know why you guys seem to think that I hate you, but I don't, I never could and god knows I tried." Prue stepped in.

-" I don't think you needed to mentioned that you actually tried." Paige contributed as Piper shot her a look.

-"I didn't want to lie and to say that everything's been easy would have been a lie. The thing is, something's wrong, I know it, you're different then the Phoebe I remember. I want you to be happy, and I can tell that right now you're not. Piper thinks that I can help, and I want to try, but you need to talk to me." Prue explained to her sister.

-"What about you? You can barely be around us, I feel it. You shouldn't be force to, just because we need you. WE let you down when you needed us."

-She was talking, which the sisters thought was an improvement, but she had yet to agree to talk about the last five years.

-"I don't want revenge Phoebs, and yes its hard for me right now, but you need me, that comes first."

-"It always was like this, before. You used to say that it didn't matter if you didn't like me, you would always love me." Phoebe told her sister with a small smile.

-"Yes, I do."

-"But why? We hurt you, I hurt you, so much." Tears were starting to pour out of Phoebe's eyes

-"Yeah, but your still my baby sister." Prue confided.

-"Okay", Phoebe finally accepted.

-"Okay what?" Prue was confused.

-"I'll talk, but you have to promise me that you'll let me see how you really feel, about everything." Phoebe told her sister.

-"Okay. Let's go." She took her baby sister's hand and led her to the others.

-"So, ready to go home sis?" Paige asked her.

-"Yeah, let's go home", she smiled as she tightened her hold on Prue's hand as Paige orbed all of them back to the manor.


	21. Chapter 21

-"So come on, let's talk." Prue addressed her baby sister as soon as they were back at the manor.

-"Talk?" Phoebe pretended she didn't know what her sister was talking about, but before Prue could say anything else they heard another voice in the room.

-"You know, with words. She says something, you then say something back. I, for myself, would love to."

-The girls swung back to face the intruder and Prue froze.

-"Prue! Didn't think I'd see you again but I say you are right we do need to talk." He smirked enjoying the terror that grazed Prue's features.

-The girls didn't have to be told who he was, Prue's expression told them all that they needed to know. It was Darius, the demon that had kidnapped and tortured their sister.

-Phoebe and Piper had exactly the same idea. At once they both moved to stand between their big sister and the demon.

-"Oh! Isn't it cute. Now move out of the way, me and big sis need to talk."

-Piper and Phoebe didn't move an inch. "Not going to happen, now get out." Piper retorted before trying to blow him up. It barely made him flinch.

-"We all know that's not going to work." He said before stopping Paige from orbing out to get the spell. "Leaving so soon. Why try to vanquish me already, we haven't even played yet?" He smirked.

-"What do you want?" Prue, who had finally stormed off of her torpor, finally asked.

-"To make a deal."

-"No thanks." She answered quickly.

-"You didn't even hear my offer and it's a good one." He started again, not fazed a bit by Prue's rebuttal.

-"I'm going to tell you anyway, here it is. Prue, you reverse the spell which by the way is making this whole thing unfair and in return I don't kill you. As a matter of fact, there's no reason for you to be involve at all once the spell is reversed. So, what do you say?" He asked the eldest Halliwell who still stood behind her two sisters.

-"No deal." Prue said determinedly. Her answer was met with surprise from the entire room.

-"I'd consider taking that deal if I were you Prue. You could wash yourself away from all this and at the same time save your life as well as avoid having to relive memories of old times." He threatened.

-Prue who had fought her fears went back to doing what she had done for so long, what she knew best, protecting her sisters. It was uncanny how fast she had went back to her old habits.

-"Sorry, that's still a no." She reaffirmed.

-"I'm going to kill you, you know that. And for what, for them? What did they do for you to sacrifice yourself? Nothing. You're going to die for nothing."

-"No. She's going to take the deal." Piper spoke up and received a glare form her older sister.

-"Stay out of this Piper. It's no." Prue said walking to stand in front of her sisters.

-"Prue please, don't do this. We can handle him." It was Paige who had spoken.

-"No." She stubbornly stayed on her position.

-"It's your decision. I hope though that you remember what you're in for because believe me, you're not going to get away this time." Darius threatened once again.

-"We'll do the spell." Piper decided. The image of Prue getting tortured floating menacingly in her mind. There was no way she was letting her go through this again, no way.

-"You can't. It's my spell." Prue argued while Darius sat back and enjoyed the argument. He had known that playing on the witches' guilt was going to work.

-"Power of three here. We can undo the spell." Piper argued back.

-"Don't Piper." Prue begged.

-"I'm not letting you do this again. We just got you back, we're not going to loose you again." Piper cried.

-"Piper, you and Phoebe could get killed." Prue tried to resonate with her.

-"We won't. Can't you just trust us? We can do this Prue. We can vanquish him even without the protection spell."

-"I'm not risking it, sorry."

-"Prue!!!!!"

-"Can't you see it. It's what he wants. For you guys to be defenceless. He's been waiting for that ever since that day. You might be strong, but he's been planning this for years. He wouldn't be here if he didn't have a plan. You're going to do exactly what he wants, make yourself easy targets. Sorry but I'm not going to let you do that, I just can't."

-She saw that they were still hesitating. "Can't you guys just trust me. I know him, it's exactly what he wants." The girls finally folded and nodded sadly.

-"Oh Prue that hurts, and here I thought we were friends. Well, we'll have plenty of time to get reacquainted." He went to grab her while she was looking at her sisters but Phoebe who hadn't taken her eyes off him, saw him coming and before he could take a hold of her sister, yanked Prue's arms toward her and took a step forward, placing herself in front of Prue.

-As he was about to touch her, he was suddenly shoved back by an invisible force that surrounded Phoebe the moment he got close to her.

-"Damn spell." He pestered standing up quickly before vanishing.

-Prue and Phoebe stared at each other silently for a few seconds before Phoebe collapsed into tears.

-Prue went to her quickly and pulled her into her arms, hugging the younger woman as she cried.

-The other girls stood silently watching the two as Prue was once again comforting her baby sister.

-"I thought I was going to loose you again. I was so scared Prue." Phoebe cried through her tears.

-"Hey, it's alright okay. I'm right here."

-"But he could have took you again."

-They turned to look at Piper who had her head into her hands.

-"I can't believe he got this close." Tears were starting to roll down her cheeks too as she realised that if Phoebe hadn't moved that fast, Darius would have taken Prue again.

-"Piper, I'm fine." Prue argued even though they all could see that she was pretty shaken up by what had just happened.

-"It could have all happened again. Thank God Phoebe saw him coming."

-"Yeah, thanks Phoebs." Prue said kissing her sister's forehead.

-"You should have just done the spell Prue." Piper complained.

-"Piper. Don't okay. Didn't you see? It was exactly what he expected, to guilt you guys into reversing the spell so that he could kill us all. We can't let him win." She saw their eyes on her.

-"Don't worry you guys, I'm going to be fine."

-"I want you to go to magic school, you'll be safe there." Piper asked walking to stand beside Prue and Phoebe.

-"Piper!"

-"Please Prue." Phoebe begged brushing tears off her eyes.

-"Guys, I…"


End file.
